Life Rhapsody
by rei2nadia
Summary: AU. Mai was an orphan who lived in a nearly rundown orphanage in town. Guess who was the narcissist egoistical noble who turned her world upside-down then? NxM of course. Rated T just to be safe. First time writing, please R&R.
1. Chapter 1: The First Encounter

**Author's note: Ok, so I found a little mistake in Ayako's name so I re-upload this one chapter. There's nothing else that's changed so you don't need to bother checking on it again. While for first time reader, this is my first fanfiction ever so please be kind to me and give me a review about how I did in writing this. I'll look forward for your reviews! XD**

**Disclaimer: Ghost hunt is obviously not mine :P**

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**Chapter One: The First Encounter**

"MAI-NEE-CHAN!"

I literally jumped out of my sleep when I heard Kanoko's cry of distress. My head accidentally bumped into the low ceiling in the process. I cringed by the pain. _Oww, what a great woke up call in the morning, _I grumbled silently while gently rubbed my head. As I was trying to climb down the bunk, Kanoko and Seria barged in to the room.

"Mai-nee-chan! Mai-nee-chan! Please, hurry up, we need help!" shouted both girls as they ran to my bunk.

"Yes, yes, I'm coming. What is it this time?" I asked as my foot finally touched the ground. Without even waste a second for me to fully regained my consciousness, they pulled each of my hands and dragged me out of the room. "Whoa, slow down, girls! What's wrong?"

"I... I think we've burnt the kitchen..." answered Seria groggily.

"WHAT?" That answer had fully awakened me now. I picked up my pace, made the two girls running a little behind me.

"We're very sorry, Mai-nee-chan! It was an accident! We were just trying to make breakfast for everyone," said Kanoko. Her eyes were a little teary now. "I'm not sure what happen but the stove was kind of exploded..."

"Kind of exploded...?" I repeated in shock. _What were they doing that could make the stove _kind of exploded_?_ I thought miserably. I ran my way to the kitchen in the first floor. The girls were following me closely. When I reached the kitchen door, it was widely opened and some kids were already gathering there with a horror look on their faces. The blaze of the fire and the heat had nearly reached the kitchen door. I was really terrified by the chaos when I finally spotted the care takers of the orphanage, Ayako-san and Bou-san. They were busy taking care of the crowd and the fire with some of the older kids. I immediately noticed Rein in one of the older guys who were trying to put off the fire. I walked up to Ayako-san.

"Come on, kids! It's dangerous here! Please go back to your rooms now!" shouted Ayako as she tried to keep the kids far enough from the door.

I told Kanoko and Seria to guide the younger kids to their rooms before came to Ayako-san. "What on earth have happened here?"

Ayako-san looked at me in relieve. "Oh, thank God, you finally here! Help me to get the kids back to their rooms, please! I'll explain later."

"Alright..." I said.

With the help of the older girls, we finally able to persuade the kids to go back to their rooms. Soon, the guys also finished putting off the fire. They were so exhausted, they just went lay off everywhere they could. The girls hurriedly got some wet towels for the guys to cool off. I got one and made my way to Rein, my best friend. He was leaning to the side of a stair nearby. He looked up tiredly when I reached him.

"Good morning, huh?" he said playfully.

I smiled and sat beside him. "A really good morning to you too," I replied as I handed him the wet towel. He took it gratefully and put it on his face. I brushed some ashes from his dark smooth hair before asked, "So, what on earth happening to the kitchen? I know Kanoko and Seria said that the stove suddenly 'kind of exploded', but still... How come a stove can just suddenly burst out like that?"

Rein snorted in please. "'Kind of exploded'? What a really good way to put it! Those girls, really..." He shook his head in disbelief before sighing tiredly.

I peered at him. "What is it? What's the matter?"

He took off the towel and put it on his head. "No... It's just... The whole reason for this incident to happen is because of the stoves in the kitchen are already too outdated to be used. But because we don't have the money, we cannot buy a new one. And then this is happened... I mean, we can't even afford some new bloody stoves, let alone to repair the whole kitchen!"

I giggled a little. "You use your accent again."

He blushed faintly. "Well, I am sorry for using my noblesse accent again to my precious modest friend, but I just can't help it sometime, so let me be!"

I laughed. "Sorry, didn't mean to. But still, what you've said is right. Now that this is happened we need to work harder to get money if we don't want this place to close down. We nearly don't have enough for daily living, I wonder what we can do to cover these damages."

We lost in thought for a moment before Ayako-san came to us. She sat down next to me, sighing. "From all of the places that could have been burnt down, why did it have to be the kitchen? Now we have to dig the ground just to cook the meals!" She complained rather randomly. Not that it's not expected.

"Wow, Ayako-san, you really have to see matters in the weirdest way possible, do you? I mean, digging the ground is not our biggest problem right now." Rein said disbelievingly.

"Well, my dear Rein, what is the point of worrying something that have been worried by every other people?" Ayako-san retorted. "That is so not original and it's useless. Rather spent your time to something more useful like checking out things that other people don't see."

"Like digging soil?"

"Yes, my dear. Like digging the soil."

I laughed at their useless argument. This was what I loved about this place. This orphanage. The people in this place were always at ease even in the worst situation possible. They still smiled, they still laughed, and they even joked around about the event without much sign of depression. This kind of atmosphere always succeeded in making me feel relaxed and at home, no matter how difficult our situation was. And this orphanage had been my home for 17 years now since I was thrown out by my real parents when I was still one year old.

I remembered Ayako-san, as the daughter of the founder of this place, was often play with me and teach me a lot of things. She'd already become a figure of mother or older sister to me who I adored so much and looked up to. And what I really admired so much about her was the fact that she's still hanging around, taking care of this place—which was really poor and broke down since the bankruptcy of Ayako-san's family business—while she could have married to some nice guy from a good family and lived her life peacefully like any other women her age—which, by the way, was forbidden to even be mentioned about, courtesy of Ayako-san—and leaved this broken down orphanage to the hand of the government. But once I'd mentioned about this to the very own person, she just waved her hand impatiently and said, "Are you trying to say that I should just leave this place in the hand of those irresponsible government rats who can't even differ kids and dogs? No, no, thank you very much. I still have enough sanity to not do that. Now, can you go to the market and get these things for me? I was about to go myself but I just remembered that I have promised little Jun to teach him basic math so I need you to go in my place, please." And that's the end of discussion.

Rein, however, had only came to the orphanage when I was 12 and he was 13 years old. Rein's family was one of the noblesse in the country but a tragic accident occurred to them and Rein was the only survivor. He was supposed to be the heir of his family fortune, but as what he said as "fat sly noblesse foxes" were becoming his godparents, he decided to just go off on the street rather than staying with them. A few months wandering the country and Rein found his way to this town before he then met Ayako-san's father and decided to stay in this place. He indeed was a carefree, high-prided, careless kid. He always talked as he like without a care about how other person would think of him. He always stayed true to what he feels and what he thinks, so much that sometime it seemed as if he was a stubborn fool. But at the same time he was also a very kind and playful person. He always thought about others first, especially the kids in the orphanage, rather than himself. He loved to act as the big brother of everyone and had a big responsibility consciousness for those he cared about. Probably that's why we could just "click" to each other since the first time we met. People often said that we had a very similar personality. We'd been best friend ever since.

"You guys sure have a lot of morning spirit here," Bou-san said—whose real name was actually Takigawa Houshou, but no one ever bothered to call him that anyway—as he was coming to our currently sitting place. He put up his usual cheerful grin across his face as if he was having the greatest day ever. Couldn't blame him though, for he had to take care of a huge fire since early morning while he usually had to stuck with taking care of the wild grass in the garden. This must be the greatest morning he ever had.

Ayako-san rolled her eyes as Bou-san approaching us. "And here come the troublemaker. Great."

"Aww, you don't have to be that harsh to your day-saver, right, Ayako-chan?" teased Bou-san with a wider grin on his face. Rein and I snickered to each other. It's already like a public secret that Bou-san had a crush on Ayako-san and decided her as his personal teasing target, much to her dislike.

Bou-san was actually a scholar whose family was acquaintance with Ayako-san's family, the Matsuzaki. But since the downfall of them, Bou-san had offered his help in taking care of the orphanage; mostly in its correspondences and administration. At first Ayako-san was reluctant about this, especially because of Bou-san's carefree attitude. But as he was able to quickly gain the kids' trust, including Rein's and mine, she became tend to let him do daily chores, and even sometime treat him as the man of the house even though she didn't want to admit that. Since then, their relationship had been the greatest love affair in the orphanage as the kids loved to mock them both.

"Don't be such a big-headed jerk just because you finally did something right for once, Takigawa-san." Ah, I forgot to mention that Ayako-san was the only person in the orphanage who's still calling Bou-san with his real name. A sign of her much disagreement of him, once she told me. She's now glaring at Bou-san with annoy. "Which is, by the way, a truly should celebrated event, I tell you—with that usual troublemaker attitude of yours. Seriously, it's driving me crazy sometimes!"

Bou-san gave a surprise look. "Mai! Rein! Did you hear that? Ayako was practically praising me without any hitting! Oh, God, today just couldn't get any better!"

Ayako-san blushed faintly. "I didn't praise you, idiot!" she cried as she tried to hit Bou-san's head. Bou-san laughed happily while dodging Ayako-san's attack across the hall. Everyone's now watching them and laughed at the scene. As I was watching Bou-san and Ayako-san running around with everyone laughing at them, I couldn't help the smile on my face. Suddenly I didn't feel worry anymore.

"What's with the smile, pretty lady? You seem so happy," said Rein, smirking at me.

"Shut up," I said as I elbowed his shoulder playfully. "I'm just thinking how lucky I am to be here. I might not be this happy if I were somewhere else, I think. I just feel grateful."

Rein smiled at me knowingly. "Yeah, I guess me too." He put his gaze back to the hall where everyone's now cheering for Bou-san as he jumped over a wooden bench while Ayako-san chasing him with her infamous feather duster now in her hand. I wonder who gave her that in the middle of that running. "And that's why, no matter what, I'm going to keep this place running. No matter how hard, no matter how difficult, I'm not going to let this place close."

I nodded, smiling in hope. "Me too."

Not long after, the hall was exploded with the cheer of everyone as Ayako-san hit Bou-san right on the head with a big "WHACK!" and a big satisfied smile on her face. Seeing how Bou-san's now rolling on the floor with exaggerated pain while Ayako-san's pouting on the sight but still with a slight worry in her eyes, I just couldn't help but laughed out loud.

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I looked around the crowd surround me as I walk hurriedly pass the street. _Where is he?_ I thought desperately while looking for any sight of Rein's tall and black headed figure among the crowd of the market street. _He said we're supposed to meet in front of the butcher's shop since 30 minutes ago! Where could he be? Has something bad happened to him?_ I felt my stomach aching in frustration and my hands shaking. I tried to calm myself down. _Don't be stupid, Mai!_ I said to myself. _He will be alright. You're just over-thinking!_

I continued my quick search around the market. My eyes never stopped scanning every faces, every figure that I passed; hoping that one of them would be Rein's. Suddenly my eyes spotted a dark haired figure among the crowd. Feeling relieved and angry at the same time, I quickly raised my pace toward him. He seemed to be talking to a tall, light brown haired man who was smiling at him as if that guy was teasing him. I pouted. _Being caught up in conversation as always, isn't he! And here I am, worrying him for nothing!_

"Rein! How long are you planning on making me wait aimlessly here while you're chit-chatting with some random guy?" I exclaimed angrily as I pulled him to face me. But instead of seeing an apologetic green pair of eyes, my eyes met with a surprised blue pair one. I gasped in shock. _It's a wrong person!_ I realized. I quickly let go of my grip on his arm. "I-I'm truly sorry! I've mistaken you with my friend! I'm really sorry for my rudeness!"

The guy whom I've been mistaken with didn't say anything but just looking at me with his icy blue eyes—which, by the way, was really pretty; like a pair of crystal or something. _It's not the time for this!_ I warned myself. I looked apologetically at him, trying to convince him how I am sorry, but he just kept on staring at me as if he was examining me. I stole a glance to the other guy, asking for help. He smiled widely and patted the back of the blue eyed guy.

"Come on, Naru. Don't scare the lady! She's been trying to apologize to you," he said while smiling widely to me. The light brown haired guy seemed to be a nice guy, but there's something alarming with his smile. _The kind that might be unexpectedly pretty evil,_ I thought to myself.

Naru, the blue eyed guy, still with his examining look, finally said, "Don't worry. I think it's pretty expectable for you."

I frowned. "Excuse me?"

"Now, now, Naru, that's not how you should treat a lady," said the other guy while fixing his glasses. "Madoka will scowl you again if she saw you."

"It doesn't matter. She loves scowling people," answered Naru uninterested. "And it's not like this girl can be called a lady." I stared at him in shock. What a really rude guy! He threw one last glance to me before turning over. "Let's get going, Yasuhara."

"What? We're leaving? Why don't we help her first?" Yasuhara turned to me without waiting for Naru's answer. He put on his usual wide smile. "Are you looking for someone, Miss? Did you lose sight of him?"

I answered cautiously. "Yes. I'm really sorry for my earlier rudeness, but the person that I'm looking for has a very similar figure with that man. A tall man with black hair, even though he's wearing a very different outfit and has a rather darker skin tone." Now that I thought about it, despite his tall figure and his black hair, this Naru guy had a totally different appearance with Rein. His skin was too pale for Rein and he was wearing a very classy expensive looking outfit. Even his posture were so different, I wondered how could I mistaken him for Rein. _Must be really panicking, I was,_ I thought to myself.

"He? A tall man with black hair, has a similar figure with Naru? That's pretty unusual..," Yasuhara mused to himself. "I don't think I've seen anyone like that in here. Would you like our help? We have some guards coming along with us. If you'd like, we can order them to look for him."

_Guards? What kind of crazy rich people that I've encountered?_ I backed up a little. "Ah, no, no, no! It's fine! I'll look for him myself. Thank you for your offer, though."

"Are you sure? It's quite dangerous here, you know." Yasuhara furrowed his eyebrows.

I shook my head. "I'm fine. I live around here anyway. This place is already like my playground." I said with a shy laugh. Yasuhara and Naru looked at each other mysteriously. But before I could ask what's wrong, I heard a vague voice calling my name. I looked around and saw Rein's figure in the crowd, running towards me. I sighed in relief. _Finally, that idiot! He'll pay for this!_ I grumbled in thought as I waved at him. I turned back to the two gentlemen before me and bow courtly. "Thank you for your offer, but it seems that the person I'm looking for has found me so I need to take my leave now. I'm very sorry about the earlier incident, but it is nice to meet you. Please excuse me."

Yasuhara smiled—a genuine smile—and nodded while the Naru guy just stared at me with a calculating look on his face. I just rolled eyes in my thought at his attitude. _Whatever, that guy just has bad manners. Why would I care?_ I thought without care as I made my way to the waiting Rein. Oh, I didn't know how wrong I was…

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So... that's it! I hope you like it! Please R&R~


	2. Chapter 2: Second Encounter

**Author's note: I'm so so sorry for the late update! But I'm pretty busy lately with classes' assignments and dance practice so I don't exactly have the time to write at all... I was planning to make this chapter longer than it is now, but I got a writing block as I'm very nervous for my dance performance tomorrow and I want to publish this chapter before my exam week begin, so... yeah, please enjoy and let me now your opinions about it!**

**Disclaimer: I certainly do not own Ghost Hunt, but at least I have Rein ＾V^**

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**Chapter two: Second Encounter**

I was washing the dishes when Rein coming with two glasses of hot tea. I gave him a smile of gratitude before turning back to my chore. Rein sat beside me and blew lightly to his tea. He put mine on the sink side. He silently watched me working as we both enjoyed this kind of calming atmosphere. That was, until he broke the silent. "So… Mai…"

"Hmm?"

"What were you talking about with those guys at the market?" he asked quietly.

"Hm? Nothing in particular," I answered nonchalantly. "Why'd you ask?"

"Nothing. It's just…" He paused. "Do you even know who they are?"

I looked at him with confuse look. "Who are they?"

He sighed in defeat and shook his head slightly. I pouted at him, hating it when he started to act like he knew more than me. It's true though, but still. He looked at me again and said, "They are the ever so known noblesse of this town. They are very well-known as having really great influence to this town and such a troublemaker. One of the guys whom you've met today is the only son of the town's duke and the leader of those noblesse brats."

"Oh… Wow…" I said stupidly. Well, that figured the classy outfit and the guard stuffs, but it's still rather shocking to know that I'd met and chatted nonchalantly with someone so great. Not that they had such great personalities or anything. Even just remembering on how that Naru guy had looked at me as if I was some disgusting pile of clothes, had made me felt like throwing some shoes at him. But then, he's just some spoiled rich brat anyway, what could you expect?

By these train-thoughts of mine, Rein had continued his warnings. "He said to be the sole successor of this town and people said that he act highly of himself. The typical kind of them, of course. Those kind of people are bad, Mai. Irritating and bad. I don't want you to get near to them. I don't like it if you talk to them."

I laughed at this. "Oh, come on, Rein! You don't have to be that protective! And it's not like I've befriended them or something. I was just mistaken one of them as you and apologizing for the mistake. No big deal."

Rein frowned. "You've mistaken them for me? You mean the tall black haired guy?"

I grinned. "Yeah, I know. Silly, right? But I was a bit panicking at that time. I guess I was just looking for any black-haired guy I could find." I paused a second. "Come to think of it, that guy looks a bit like you. Mostly different though, but there are sure some similarities in both of you. Could it be possible that he's one of your long distance relatives?"

"Maybe, maybe not. Either way, I don't care. I don't want to have anything to do with them anymore," said Rein with cloudy expression.

Looking at his face I felt a bit guilty for bringing this topic up so I said nothing more. Instead, I changed the topic. "Well, as we're already talking about this afternoon incident, I want to remind you that I haven't let you go for leaving me like that. That was just too cruel, you know! I am so going to make you pay for that."

Rein cringed. "Aw, Mai, I've told you that was a mistake. It's not that I forgot or anything, I just couldn't get out of the conversation with that old lady. And she was such a nice lady too. It's so not gentleman to ignore that kind of nice lady, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, said the ex-noble who don't want anything more to do with those stuffs. I understand alright," I whined jokingly. Rein laughed at this. I smiled at his laughing face but decided to continue on my whining. "If you really wish for my apology then you have to treat me with something."

Rein grinned at me playfully. "Alright then, my Princess. What about we go for some crepes tomorrow afternoon and have a nice afternoon walk as my apologies? My treat, of course. Even if that means I will be broke."

I laughed at that last comment but still gave my best to follow on his act. "Well then, dear gentleman, if you insist, that would do fine." We laughed at each other's pathetic try on reenacting noblesse' act and started to arrange our new plan for tomorrow afternoon as we finishing the dishes and our hot tea.

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It was before lunch when I planned to tell Ayako-san about my little walk with Rein for the afternoon. We were preparing lunch in high speed; remembering that we needed to make food for over a hundred people with the only left stove from the fire incident. I had never known that cooking could be that hectic. I really wished we could buy a new stove or we might need the boys' help to cook with wood and fire. But wish was a wish. It wouldn't be that easy to come true. Anyway, it's when we were nearly finished when I finally told her my plan.

"Ne, Ayako-san," I started. "Would it be alright if Rein and I take a little walk around the town this afternoon? It wouldn't be that long but it's just this little promise of us, if you don't mind."

"Hmm, is that so?" replied her without even looking up from her stirring pot. "I don't think I will need you two to do something this afternoon anyway. And some nice afternoon walk would be nice for you. Both of you have been working too hard lately, you know. Some rest wouldn't hurt."

I laughed a bit. "We're not that hard-working though, but thank you. We're also planning on buy some crepes for the others. Would you like some, Ayako-san?"

She looked up from the pot and smile gently. "No, I'm fine. And you should just use your money for yourself, you know. You don't have to be that worry about the other kids. It's not like you have that much money either, right?"

"No, it's fine. I don't want to have fun just by myself. After all, wouldn't food taste better if you eat it together with the people you love?"

Ayako-san looked at me with her motherly smile and said, "Then I suppose it is."

I smiled back at her and returned to my previous job with a beaming heart. Whenever Ayako-san gave someone her motherly smile, it meant that she's really proud of that person. Despite of its pretty rare chance, if someone got that smile, it felt as blessing as when you got the first prize in a town's lottery; or even more. That's why everyone in this orphanage was hoping for that smile and whenever there's someone lucky enough to get it, he would be so proud and happy that he nearly couldn't stop smiling for the next few days. And I really couldn't stop my grin right now.

As we finished preparing lunch, some of the older girls had come to help setting up the plates and bringing out the pans to the dining room. When Ayako-san and I were finally joining in with the last dish, the room had filled with everyone, chatting and laughing about their day while waiting for us to finally start the lunch. It's some kind of a tradition in this place—where everyone had to wait until all of us had gathered in the room and be ready to eat before we could finally digging on the meal. I took my seat at Rein's side and told him about Ayako-san's permission.

"As expected of Ayako-san," said Rein when he heard that Ayako-san had said that we had worked too hard. "She always says that other people are working too hard while she's the one who works the hardest. But at the same time she also keeps on complaining about her jobs. I really can't get her character."

"Well, that's Ayako-san for you," I said while scoping some mash potato onto my plate. "Her way of thinking is as unpredictable as the storm. But that's also the reason why we like her, right? She's so much different with other adults. If not, she might not be here in the first place."

"Well, I couldn't say otherwise," he said as he examined his food. He stirred his fork in the vegetable sauté that I made with a scrunching face. "What is this? Vegetable porridge?"

I pouted at him. "Well, I'm sorry if it doesn't suit your taste, but it's a sauté, okay? It may not exactly look like one but it also doesn't look like porridge so cut the insults already."

He sighed in defeat. "It's your cooking, isn't it? Really, Mai, you've been getting the cooking chore for years now and you're still this…" He lifted up the food a little. "…terrible?"

"It's not _that_ terrible, you know. And it's not like you're any better than me," I said with a huff. Some people near us had started giggling at our conversation. It wasn't like everyone hadn't known about my inability to cook, but still, there's no need to emphasizing it, right?

"Yeah, I'm _way_ better than you. Come on, Mai, you have to start learning how to cook decently or no one would like to take you as a wife." He smirked devilishly.

I blushed a little at his statement. Now the kids around us had started to laugh. Some of the boys whistled mockingly at us and even threw stupid jokes like "Listen to that, Mai! Or he might be a better wife than you!" or "Whaaat, Mai is finally being prepared for marriage!" or "Yeah, Mai! Do that or your husband might die from poisonous food!" At this point, my face had been bright red. Even the older girls couldn't hold up their giggles while Ayako-san smiled and shook her head in please and Bou-san grinned devilishly as he shared a conspiring look with the very well-pleased Rein. _Those two! _I thought in annoy. _They truly are two annoying idiots!_

I tilted my chin up as my last resort in saving my pride and said, "Oh, stop it! You know that it's not quite that necessary anymore for a girl to be able to cook in order for her getting courted! A true gentleman must be able to see pass this and court the girl nonetheless."

"Yeah, that's right!" shouted Momoka, the youngest girl in the orphanage. To see a six year old girl shouted and joined in this kind of conversation was quite shocking for everyone was calming down. While Momoka, knowing she's now the centre of interest of everyone, stood on her chair and exclaimed proudly. "Mai-nee-chan doesn't need to be good at cooking to be able to be the wife. After all, Rein-nii-chan is good enough at cooking that he can do it instead of her, right, Rein-nii?"

There was a long intense total silent in the room. Everyone turned agape for a moment, before there was like a switch turned on and they all broke into an earthshaking laughter. Even Ayako-san had laughed like she had never laughed before. Bou-san had clutched his stomach, bent toward the table and banging it hardly with his fist as he laughed uncontrollably. The girls had forgotten all of their manners and laughed so loud with a clear pleasure plastered on their faces. As the boys, well, it seemed like they might be die from laugh just about any minute now. Next to me, Rein had turned as red as tomato while I'd felt like I was going to explode by embarrassment. As I was _begging_ to God for this embarrassment to stop, the front bell chimed.

Everyone started to calm down and looked at each other in confuse. It had been quite a long time since someone actually paid a visit to us. Ayako-san looked at Bou-san questioningly but he shrugged, as clueless as she was. Then she stood up and made her way out of the dining room, followed by Bou-san who threw us—Rein and I—a knowing glance before the door shut. Rein, understanding the meaning of Bou's glance, cleared his throat.

"Alright, everyone! As it seems that Ayako-san and Bou-san are having a guest, let's us start the lunch first," said Rein once he got everyone's attention. There were slight hesitations and low murmurs around the table, but they just continued the meal as told.

Jane, who was sitting at my right, leaned in to me. "Hey, Mai, what is that all about? Ayako-san looked quite alerted."

I shook my head. "I don't know. Maybe because this guest is unexpected? It's quite rare for us to get unexpected guests."

"It is, indeed," agreed Jane. "I wonder who has come; and what is their business here. I hope it's not a bad thing."

"Yeah, I hope so." But I still couldn't get rid of this worry feeling in my mind. Just right when I was about to eat my first bite, Bou-san's ears-tearing shout was heard throughout the building.

"YOU WHAT?"

Everyone froze when we heard Bou-san's voice. Bou-san was a scholar. He was taught to be well-mannered and act by his logic in every situation. He could be a total wicked person at times, but he had never shouted before. Not like that. Rein jumped out of his chair and rushed quickly to the door. I looked at him, and then the others; and then I stood up.

"Please, stay here," I commanded before rushed my way out of the room.

I caught up with Rein just before he reached the door to the hall room. He looked at me with an unreadable expression, his hand on the door's handle. I looked back at him and nodded. He took a breath and pushed open the door slowly. We peeked through the door and saw Ayako-san and Bou-san were talking with three tall men; one of them was trying to calm Bou-san down while Ayako-san was staring at the man in the middle with vicious eyes. That man was somehow looked scarily familiar to me. I squinted and took a better observation of him; tall body figure, black hair, pale skin, intimidating eyes, classy outfit—I gasped in realization.

"Naru?"

Everyone turned their faces on me. I covered my mouth immediately. _Stupid!_ I cursed myself for my slip. Rein looked at me with disbelief expression. I could nearly read his mind; _I thought you said that you don't have anything to do with them!_ I shook my head furiously. _I don't!_ I said through my widening eyes. He still looked at me with a doubtful look, but before he could do anything, the guy who had been trying to calm Bou-san down spoke up.

"My, my! Look what do we have here! It's Mai-san herself! Now, would you lady and gentleman let her hear this great news herself?" The man, whom I had realized as Yasuhara-san, said with his usual carefree smile.

Ayako-san glared at him. "This is not a great news at all. And no, I'm not letting her hear anything from you until I get your real intentions here."

"Well, I don't exactly have any objection to that since I have no intention in hiding my reasons," said Naru-san with his usual cold attitude. "But also because this is something that affects her greatly, wouldn't it be rude to her if we exclude her?"

"Like he is someone who could talk about rudeness," said Rein under his breath. I glanced at him. I didn't like the gist of this, but Rein sure was anxious about it. I threw a glance at Ayako-san and Bou-san, and they sure didn't look like any less anxious about it.

Bou-san looked worriedly at me, then at Naru-san, and finally at Ayako-san. He sighed. "He has his senses, Ayako."

Ayako-san threw Bou-san a warning look for using her name without any honorable suffix in front of the guests, but she looked back at Naru-san. "Fine then, you can tell her."

"Um, what is this all about?" I braved myself to ask.

Naru moved his cold stare at me and spoke clearly. "I'm here to take you as my wife."

There was an ice-cold pause moment.

"YOU WHAT?" Rein and I screamed.

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So... There you have it! Please R&R, and let me know whether it's getting better or worse. Any critical comments are more than welcome! ^_^


	3. Chapter 3: A Still Continued Encounter?

**Author's note: So... After not sleeping the whole night, I got this out. It sucks, it's not enough and it's just simply suck. I have wanted to make this one chapter way longer than it is, but I have loads of things I need to do that if I make this chapter any longer, I might not be able to finish none of it including posting this. Sorry, for keep on cutting the amount of words, sorry for making Naru seems so way out of it and sorry if Mai's character has become somewhat way too calm. I am so so sorry. I'm still working on getting into the character but for now, please enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Oh, you'll know right away that Ghosthunt isn't mine. I'm way too out of the character. Aaaaarrrggggghhhhh!**

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**Chapter 3: A Still Continued Encountering?**

To say that it had been a chaos would be an understatement of the year. The rest of the children had run into the hall room just seconds after Rein and I screamed. They had thought there must be something wrong if we screamed together like that and had taken the initiative to take the defense first. Hence, they had attacked Naru-san and his companions. It couldn't be exactly said as an attack for those children wouldn't actually do any harm to any of them, but it still had been chaotic. Thank goodness that Naru-san's guard—the tall black haired man—also hadn't taken that incident seriously for he might had truly harmed one of the boys who had tried to attack them. And so, after Naru-san had once again explained his intention in coming here, much to his displease of keep on repeating himself, and another round of disbelieving screams, and a round of embarrassing mocks and jokes, and a frustrated scream from Ayako-san for the endless ruckus, and another round of scream of disappointment from the dismissed children, we could finally get ourselves a some more comfortable way to discuss this; a meeting in the living room.

Naru-san—or Oliver Davis-san, as he had introduced himself as—Yasuhara Osamu-san and their guard—whose name was Lin Koujo, as he had said very shortly in the earlier self-introduction—sat on one coach, while Ayako-san, Bou-san and I sat on the across coach, and Rein stood menacingly right behind me with his most vicious look, glaring at Naru-san,_ Oliver_-san, while the concerned person put no attention to him at all, causing him to give off more killing aura in to the room. And everything was dead silent. I nervously gripped my dress sides, praying for someone to break the tension or I might die because of the stress. That was when Yasuhara-san cleared his throat.

"So," he said while putting his angelic-look-like-smile-but-somehow-look-kind-of-evil smile. "That was quite an incident earlier, wasn't it? Couldn't say that I didn't surprise to see how energetic the people of this house could be. It's not a bad thing, of course."

No one made a respond.

Yasuhara-san cleared his throat again, a little nervous this time. "Alright, I guess everyone here just want to get to the point immediately. If so, then Na.. Davis-sama can start his explanation for this."

Everyone turned their eyes on Na- Oliver- _Davis-sama_ now. _What's with this Naru name anyway?_ I grunted in my mind. Na- Davis-sama started to speak. "First of all, I want to ask why that black haired boy is here? I don't recall any relevant for him staying in this room."

"First of all, _Davis-sama_," said Rein sternly. "That _boy_ is not a boy, he's a _man_. Second of all, I do have every relevancy toward Mai as I am her best friend and the closest she has for a brother. Therefore I have every right to be in this room, and to prevent at all cost the possibility of a _noblesse brat_ like you to take her for granted."

"I don't see your reasoning would be enough to give you a pass to this conversation," replied Davis-sama.

Rein squinted his eyes. "Are you looking for a fight, young _noble_?"

"Haven't you been taught manners, young _boy_?" Davis-sama retorted.

"DON'T YOU DARE questioning my ability in teaching manners in this place, young man!" exclaimed Ayako-san so suddenly that I jumped a little from my seat. "And I know you are the son of the duke, but I am more senior than you nonetheless, therefore I have more authority, especially in my own place."

Davis-sama moved his glare—stare—to Ayako-san. "I have no objection to that as I do not have any willing to fight with an old lady."

Bou-san whistled in pleased as I was torn between giggling or gave Davis-sama disbelief stare. "What a personality," I whispered under my breath.

"You bet," said Bou-san softly.

Now Ayako-san had joined Rein in creating a murderous aura in the room, thanks to Davis-sama. While being glared at with two murderous stare, he continued as if there was nothing had happened. "As I have said three times today, I came here to court Mai-san and making her my wife. But it is not without any reasons."

"And the reason is?" Bou-san asked.

"I was prepared for marriage by my father, the duke, with this particular girl"—"Lady," corrected Yasuhara-san but was ignored—"that I don't exactly like," said Davis-sama. "To be honest, this girl"—"Lady," again Yasuhara-san corrected and was ignored—"is such a pain that I wish to rid of her, and one way that I could think of without impairing my image"—"Like his image is any good at all," said Rein—"is to say that I have another girl I am willing to marry with."

I scrunched. "How cruel… I mean, what fault does this girl have to deserve such treatment?"

"Oh, you haven't met her yet," said Yasuhara-san, half chuckled. Even Lin, the guard was turning his face to another side, as if he was hiding a smile. Davis-sama scrunched his face in disgust at the thought. Bou-san, Ayako-san, Rein and I looked at each other, curious. _What kind of a girl is she?_ I couldn't help but wondered.

Davis-sama had continued speaking again, "As for understanding the reason, you can do it afterward as your meeting with her would be necessary in the future, but for now, do you willing to become this girl I'm looking for?"

"How could you ask such a thing to a girl?" exclaimed Ayako-san rather angrily. "To ask her for a marriage with no base of love and to just becoming a replacement of another girl for the sake of your own freedom! How low your conscience could be!"

"I am not offering this proposal in no benefit at all for Mai-san," answered Davis-sama. "In fact, I am not proposing her for a real marriage at all. What I'm actually proposing to her right now is a job, as an assistant with a so-called status as a wife."

"What do you…," I stuttered in confuse.

"As you can see yourself, this orphanage is already at its limit. You have a lot of children to take care of, so many things need to be repaired, not to mention with the price-raising lately in the market, your life in this orphanage—no, rather, this orphanage life must be pretty difficult to be maintained each day," explained Davis-sama. "That's why I'm offering you this chance to be my wife. Once you have become my wife, as the payment for this so-called job, you will have all the access to my wealth and free to use it the way you want it. You can use it for yourself or for this place. You can use as much as you want for this place reparations, for the children's meals, their educations, debts, everything and anything, as long as you don't use it much enough to disrupt my own household's needs."

"As much as I need…?" I whispered in disbelief. I couldn't even believe that such an opportunity would come to us when we most needed it. If I became his wife, all of the money troubles that we had in this orphanage would gone. Everyone would be able to once again feel the safe and peaceful life without need to worry about foods and works. The children could once again feel a proper education as I was once felt long time ago. All of the troubles, all of the worries would be gone with just this one extraordinary opportunity; me becoming the duke's son's wife, Davis-sama's wife—Naru-san's wife—the same man who had looked at me as if I was some kind of a garbage yesterday. _What a fate!_ "Wow…," I exhaled.

"No," stated Rein. "This is not a wow. It's disaster. There is no way in hell we are ever going to give up Mai to become your so-called slave just because we need money. We may need some but I'm certainly sure it's not yours we're needed of, so just out of here already."

"Rein got his points," agreed Bou-san. "It is unreasonable to let Mai become your wife so we can use your money for ourselves. We're not that low. I cannot allow this to happen."

"I have been disagreed with this from the very beginning, even if your reasons were because of love from the start. Too risky for her," Ayako-san stated matter-of-factly.

"I take that as all of you have forgotten about the most important matter right now, haven't you? It is all solely Mai-san's right to decide whether she will or she will not going to take this proposal. Not yours," answered Davis-sama, undisturbed at all from the previous comments. "After all, the decision for later she is going to use my money for this place or not is also her decision, which mean it doesn't necessarily would happen if she doesn't wish to."

"What? Are you implying that she might not wanting to take care of this orphanage in the end?" asked Rein furiously.

"I didn't say anything like that. I'm just saying that everything is solely Mai-san's decisions, so don't just jumping on conclusion," answered him again. He moved his gaze on mine. "Well?"

"I- well, I…," I stuttered. Truthfully, I also didn't know what to do. It was so confusing and sudden that my mind couldn't even registered it correctly. In one side, I wanted to accept his proposal for I was so worried about this orphanage and I wanted to do something about it. But at the other side, I didn't want to accept it for my pride. I didn't want to end up being married with someone I didn't love, especially someone as obnoxious as _him_. I might be a good for nothing girl, but I did still deserve some happiness. And I was pretty sure that living anywhere near him would may not be mean happiness, let alone to literally live beside him. But I just couldn't let this chance slipped out of my hand! I clenched my fist. "I- I need some time to think about it. Would you kindly let me have some? This is just too hard to be suddenly decided."

Davis-sama nodded. "I understand. I will give you three days to think about it, then I will come back here again. Will that satisfy you?"

"Yes, it is."

"Wait, wait, Mai! Are you seriously considering his offer?" asked Rein disbelieved. "There's no way he could bring you any good! You would just suffer if you accept this offer!"

"I understand that, Rein," I answered. "That is why I need to think about this before I give my final answer. For I don't want to make a reckless decision."

"But still…"

"Please, do not worry," I smiled and assured him. "I will put very much consideration into this."

"If you say so." He turned to Lin and whispered something hardly heard. Lin nodded and reached for his vest pocket and drew a small sized paper and a small pen. Davis-sama took them and wrote on them, then he handed me the paper. "I wrote my place's location on that paper, in the case you might need some things to ask of me or you want to assure some things about this offer. You may come anytime between noon and the early evening for I will usually be at home."

I accepted the paper. "Thank you."

"Oh, and one more thing," he said suddenly. "This make-belief marriage is just as temporary as one of us has found someone we truly love for I am still honor the value of love in this world, so you do not need to worry."

I blushed a little. "Ah, yes, thank you."

"Well then, if you excuse me." He stood up followed by his two other companion. Bou-san sprang out of his seat.

"Let me escort you to the front door," he said while giving nervous glances to Ayako-san who was still throwing Davis-sama a murderous glare and didn't give a care about her etiquette as the hostess to escort her guests to the front door.

"Thank you," said Yasuhara to Bou-san, before he turned back to us, bowed with a wide typical smile and said, "It is such a pleasure to be acquaintance of all of you."

With that shivering kind of parting, they went out of the living room and left us with a huge burden in our hearts.

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**Gaaaah! Okay, so there it is... Please tell me how you think about it. Hopefully it wasn't that bad, but please review as honest as possible.**

**I would be very honored with that. Now, I need to sleep.. Good morning!**


	4. Chapter 4: An Unwanted Encounter

**Author's note: Ugh, this chapter took all of my sunday time! ToT But whatever, it worths it! I guess... The ending is a bit sucks though, if I must tell you... Anyway, please enjoy and tell me what you think! And so sorry for the super late update! I'm not the kind of a fast writer... T^T And thanks to everyone who has put this story into their favorites, alerts, and even putting me into alerts and favorites, THANK YOU SO MUCH! I just couldn't thank you enough for that! Now, enough with the ranting. Please enjoy! XD**

**Disclaimer: Yeah, yeah, it's not mine. I know already. Duuh...**

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**Chapter 4: An Unwanted Encounter**

Just right after the door was closed, Rein grabbed my shoulders. "You are not going to accept his offer, right?" Rein asked insistently.

I avoided his eyes. "I don't know yet. Maybe…"

"Are you out of your mind? And after I warned you about them! Why would you even considering this anyway?"

"But he has what we need," I defended myself. "This kind of opportunity might not come for the second time! If only I agreed on becoming his wife then all of our problems will be gone."

"Then what if he falls in love with someone and forsakes you? You won't get his wealth anymore and we are as doomed as ever! Especially you!" said Rein.

I bit my lip. "Then I will make him love me?"

Rein turned agape. He was so shocked that even his face had turned white. I grinned guiltily at him. He stuttered for a second before his head turned to Ayako-san so fast that I was afraid he'd sprained his neck. "Ayako-san! I can't speak senses into her! Help me!"

Ayako-san sighed tiredly and massaged her nose crook. "Mai, you don't have to do anything for this orphanage. We don't want you to sacrifice yourself to help us. We might need money, but we need you more."

My heart ached from guilt. Ayako-san's words were so touching that I felt guilty for even had considered accepting that offer. I could feel Rein's grip loosened and he stroked my arms lightly. "Ayako-san is right. We could always get money somehow but you can't be replaced even by the fairest gold in the world."

I could feel the guilt inside of me turning my stomach upside-down. My eyes started to fill up with tears. To hear Rein said something like that had already made me lose every intention to oppose him. I tried to say something but my voice was hoarse so I just nodded slightly. Rein smiled at me and gave me a last assurance grip before letting me go. I peeked at Ayako-san and she was also smiling at me. But I still could see her anxiety in her eyes and I felt even guiltier as I knew myself that I couldn't give her any relieve for I was still couldn't bulge that offer out of my head, and by the way Ayako-san was looking at me now, I knew that she'd already realized that.

She reached out her hand and wiped off my unshed tears. She sighed. "I need to talk to you, Mai. And privately," she added as she looked at the nearly protested Rein. "Please check on the others for me, Rein."

Rein opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but then he just sighed and said, "Fine. See you later then."

After Rein left the room and the door had closed again, Ayako-san turned to me and looked at me in the eyes. "Look here, Mai. If I have to say honestly, I don't want you to get involve with them at all. Even if I know that this may seems like a good chance for you; whether it is for the sake of marriage or for the orphanage. But I just… It's too dangerous—too risky for you. I…," Ayako-san paused and looked away as if she was debating herself. But then she sighed and looked at me again. "All I want you to know is that I don't want you to accept this offer just because of the money or the orphanage. If you by per chance want to go for other reasons—your own happiness for example—then I might not have the power to prevent you. But if it is because of the money, because you want to help the orphanage, then don't. Trust me; you will gain nothing from them. We'd be better off by ourselves than to get involved with them. Do you understand?"

I didn't really understand what she was referring to. This might be sounded like a foolish prejudice but there was no way I would choose to be with someone like him for the sake of my happiness. I was way much happier to be in the orphanage rather than being with him. But then, Ayako-san was saying that there was still a chance for me to get her approval over this matter so I just nodded. Ayako-san nodded back but her anxiety was still there. She looked at me as if there was something left untold, but before I could think of any possibility, she patted my arms and smiled.

"Let's go back to where everyone is. We haven't had any of our meals, have we?" she said as she rose up and walked to the door.

"Ah, yes," I answered before following her.

Just when we reached the door, it was opened by Bou-san. He was a bit startled when he saw us. "Ah, are you going back to the dining room?"

"Yes," said Ayako-san. "They've gone back?"

"Yeah, thankfully," Bou-san grinned widely. But it's gone again as he looked at me. "So? How are you feeling?"

"Bad," I said while grinning tiredly.

Bou-san smiled. "Well, that means it's time to get some good food. Let's go!"

I chuckled at his enthusiasm and followed him through the door. But before we could go any further, Ayako-san called him out again. "Takigawa-san, I have something to talk to you about. Please come to my working room after the children go to their bed tonight."

Bou-san looked at her a bit confused but then he grinned like a cheshire cat. "Ah, yes, of course," he purred contentedly. "You are always that kind of a shy person. Why, sure, I will come to keep you company all night. You don't even have to ask."

I choked by laughter. Ayako-san looked a little confuse first but immediately all of her face turned as red as tomato. "I didn't mean that, you improper scholar!" she shrieked. "I would never ask that of you!" Bou-san and I just ignored her and laughed so hard until Ayako-san stopped us with her best hand chop. "Shut it, you two! I'm serious here!"

Bou-san, while rubbing his hurting head, chuckled. "Alright, alright. I got it. No need to fuss."

I cringed. "Yeah, that hurts Ayako-san. You can kill someone with that chop."

"Well, that deserves you right," stated her matter-of-factly.

"Be glad you have me, Ayako, or you might not be married till death," Bou-san said again, awarding him a new chop on the head.

"Just come," Ayako-san said sternly. Then she walked away while muttering curses like 'shrimp brain', 'pervert idiot', 'flirting maniac' and so on until she's gone behind the main door.

I looked up to Bou-san and grinned. "Good luck for that," I said as I patted his shoulder.

He messed up my hair and said, "You too, young lady." I smiled at him and we walked back together while joking around about each other's circumstances.

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I sighed as I turned around in my bed. It's just been half an hour since bedtime but most of the girls in my room had already asleep while I couldn't sleep at all. I still couldn't stop thinking about what had happened today and what I should do about it. I knew I shouldn't accept it for the sake of the money, but at the same time I couldn't help thinking about things that I could do if I did accept it. There might be no better chance to help the orphanage than this. I knew that, even though Ayako-san and Bou-san tried to hide it, our condition might have nearly reached its end. We had too much daily costs, things to be repaired, and not to mention our earlier debts; this couldn't go on any longer. _But even if I accepted the offer, Ayako-san wouldn't want to accept any help that I'd offer her,_ my mind said. _And if she did so, then there would be no meaning of me doing this._

_But she did say that if it's for my happiness, then she couldn't go against it,_ again said my thought contradicted itself. _Which, by the way, I didn't really get what she meant by that._ I wondered. _Did she really think that there's something between me and Davis-sama?_ Suddenly I could feel my cheek became hotter when I imagined his face. I shook my head fiercely. _Stupid Mai! Don't fall for his handsome face! He has the worst personality possible, for goodness sake!_ I scolded myself. I sighed. I had too many thoughts at the moment to go to sleep. I needed some fresh air to calm down.

I sat up and looked around. Everything was pitch black with only some moon light coming from windows on the other end of the room. Every other girl had fell asleep and there was only small sleeping sound filled up the room. Other than that, it was a nice and quiet night, just perfect for a little night walk. I smiled a little before quietly climbed down my bunk. Silently I walked across the room, opened and closed the bedroom door as quiet as possible. The corridor was pitch black as there was no candle light on. I knew the way to the kitchen from here even without light at all, and I knew that there are some matches and lanterns that I could use in there, so I took the nearest candle on the wall and made my way there.

Just as I made a turn on the end of the corridor, I saw a light came out of Ayako-san's working room and I remembered that she had asked Bou-san to come there after bedtime. I frowned. I wondered what they were discussing right now. Ayako-san usually only asked for an audience with Bou-san at night when she had a very important business to discuss. And I couldn't help but felt curious about what it was. Neglecting the little guilt inside me, I approached the room's door quietly. But before I could even reached the door, Bou-san's surprised voice emerged from the room. "WHAT? Are you serious?"

"Calm down, Takigawa-san! You're going to wake everyone up!" Ayako-san hissed in annoys. I walked closer to the door and put my ear on the thick wood. I could hear the sound of a chair being moved and Ayako-san sighing. Bou-san once again spoke but with a softer voice. "Are you one hundred percent sure of that?" he asked.

"Yes, I do," answered Ayako-san. "I too, didn't know about this at first, but around ten years ago I found out from my father as he saw how I had grown fond of her and I would eventually inherit this orphanage from him. That's why he then told me about that letter."

"But what does it mean?" Bou-san asked again. "Why did it say that Mai shouldn't go near the duke's place?" I perked up at the mention of my name.

I could hear Ayako-san sighed again. "Honestly I don't know. All that letter said was that we may not bring Mai anywhere near the duke's mansion and his people. It said that if we do that, then Mai will fall into misfortunes. But what kind of misfortune or why it will fall onto Mai was never mentioned." I frowned. _What are they talking about? What letter? What misfortunes? And what does it have to do with the Duke?_ I thought curiously. I leaned closer to the door.

"It sounds too suspicious to me," Bou-san said doubtingly. "When and where did Matsuzaki-ji-san found this problematic letter?"

"Father said he had found it together with baby Mai when he had founded her in front of our front door, so…" Ayako-san's voice dissipated.

"It must be from her parents," finished Bou-san, understanding Ayako-san's hesitance. My heart jumped at the mention of my parents. _My parents left a letter with me?_ I thought in shock. _And moreover, it was a warning about the Duke? What on earth…?_ But Bou-san's words cut me from my thoughts. "What else did your father tell you?"

"Nothing more. He just told me to never tell anyone about this, and that I should protect Mai with all my might. He told me that whatever the meaning of that letter, there must be some good reason for us to do as it said." There was a few seconds pause before Ayako-san continued, "But young as I was, I couldn't just accept to that."

"What?" Bou-san's voice was alarmed. "What did you do?"

Ayako-san sighed again before explaining, guilt heard clearly in her voice. "I went to the Duke and asked about it." I gasped softly. I hadn't known that Ayako-san would be that courageous—reckless in another sense. I meant, to directly ask the Duke about letter that's accusing him to bring misfortunes, it wasn't something small to be done. I was practically sticking on the door by now.

There was a long pause before Bou-san finally reacted. "Were you out of your mind?" he asked rather rhetorically. "There are limits for being unreasonable, you know!"

"I know, I know! I just couldn't help it. I was so curious about it," Ayako-san said defending herself.

Bou-san sighed. "So? What did the duke say?"

There was another pause. "That was the weird part," she finally answered. "He was a little bit surprised at first, but then he just laughed it off as if it was a very refreshing joke. And so did the rest of the people presented at that time. But the Duchess… She looked a bit concern; and even though she smiled, it was the kind of fake smile that made you feel like something was off. By just that, I could say that there was definitely something going on." She paused again. I hold my breath in anticipation as my body leaned further into the door. I could hear a tapping sound; most likely to be Ayako-san tapping her finger on the table, considering whether to say the next line or not. I could imagine Bou-san sitting in front of her, waiting patiently for her to make up her mind. Finally she sighed. "But what made me sure of it was what had happened on the next day."

There was a sound of chair being moved and footsteps around the room. I assumed that Ayako-san was going further from the door because her voice was getting harder to be heard. "On the next day, all of father's business partners were drawing from the contract, issues about father's businesses started to arise, unclear debts were declared upon us and even our properties were starting to be convicted by the court. In other words," Ayako-san paused for second. "We were getting bankrupt." My eyes widened. _I can't believe it! Is she for real? Then… then… wouldn't that mean the bankruptcy of Matsuzaki family is because of me?_ I clenched my fists and gritted my teeth. _No, no, I can't believe it! It couldn't be!_ My mind screamed in agony while Ayako-san had started to speak again. This time, her voice was shaking up a little. "Everything was taken away. We've tried to complain to the court because the excuses that they'd thrown on us weren't reasonable at all, but they didn't want to listen. They just simply said that they had proof for the accusations while we didn't have enough to do otherwise and they just did what the law said they should. And with that, we had lost everything within a week time. To speak non-senses like that, having no strong evidence yet still able to do such things to us, it must had been the work of more superior people."

Everything was total silent now. I was so shocked I didn't even know what to think anymore. I just stood there, gripping on myself and trying to control my racing heart. I didn't want to hear anymore but I had to. _I need to know everything!_ With all my might, I put my ear on the door again. This time, it was Bou-san who was speaking. "So you are speaking that the Duke had…?"

"Either him or the Duchess," answered Ayako-san. "Whoever it was, it is a fact that they didn't like my story about that letter and tried to destroy my family." She exhaled heavily. "Thank goodness that we were still able to protect this orphanage from their hands. Father has figured that this place might be their number one target when they were taking our property, so father has made it looked like that this place had met its end and replaced its ownership in the documentation…"

"…into my family," continued Bou-san, understanding was hinted in his voice. "I see. Now that you've mentioned it, I remember that there was one time when Matsuzaki-ji-san came to my place and talked with my father about it. I've been wondering about this all this time, that even if this orphanage is ours by law, father has never talked about it like it was ours. He has always emphasizing to me that the owner of this place is the Matsuzaki and that I should assist your family in legal matters." My eyes widened. _This orphanage is actually owned by Bou-san's family? And I thought that there'd be nothing else that could surprise me more than the story about the Duke,_ I thought bitterly.

"Yes. You have a very honorable man as your father," said Ayako-san with a gentle voice.

Bou-san chuckled. "Yes, just like his son."

I stifled a chuckle that's nearly came out of me. As expected of Bou-san, he just couldn't help to throw jokes even in the most serious situation. Ayako-san snorted. "As if! I still couldn't help but wonder how such a great man like Takigawa-ji-sama could have a son like you. This world just couldn't get any worse," she said with an exhausted sigh. I clasped my hand around my mouth immediately to stop my giggling. _How could they always manage to joke around like this?_ I thought in disbelief. _They sure are the best partner for each other…_

"Anyway," Ayako-san said again, followed by a few footsteps sound. "That's not the main point that I want to talk about."

"Then, what is?" asked Bou-san.

"It's about that Davis junior—what was his name again?"

"Oliver. Oliver Davis," answered Bou-san. "Do you by any chance think that he knows about this?" I gasped softly. _Does he?_ I wondered curiously.

"There are the possibilities," admitted Ayako-san. "Though I don't know for sure. I mean, he's the duke's son for God sake! Even if he was trying to find a new suitor for himself, he wouldn't just put his choice on a poor commoner like Mai without reasons at all. There must be hidden reason behind his acts. He's that kind of a person after all."

"Well, I can see your reasoning, but I don't think it will be enough to accuse him for anything," reasoned Bou-san. "If it is something that matters greatly to the Duke until he would do such a thing to your family, I don't think he would just tell anybody about it. That may also include his own son."

Ayako-san sighed. "You're right, but I still think that we should not be careless about him. I couldn't trust him." I sighed quietly. I couldn't say that I didn't agree with Ayako-san. After all, Davis-sama was the kind of a person who seemed to be able to have that kind of hidden reasons.

"I agree with you in this," agreed Bou-san. There was another momentary pause. "Then what do you plan to do with Mai and his offer to her?" I became alerted again.

Ayako-san didn't answer right away. "I… don't know… I can only trust Mai's own opinion in that."

"What do you mean by that?" Bou-san asked in confuses. "Are you planning to tell her about this?"

"Not exactly," she answered. "But I do plan to know how she is going to react to all of this. Whether she's curious enough to know or whether she is brave enough to." My heart suddenly started to race. _What does she mean by that?_

"What could you mean…?" Bou-san faltered. There was a tense silent. Bou-san gasped. "Don't you say…?" Before I could even react, the door was burst open, appearing a shocked Bou-san in front of me. Behind him, Ayako-san was standing against the table casually as if she was already expecting me to be there—which I suspected to be exactly what was happened.

I grinned guiltily at Bou-san. "Hi…"

Bou-san looked at me with disbelief stare. "Seriously? Mai?"

I looked down. "I'm sorry… I didn't mean to. I was just about to take a night stroll in the garden when I passed the room, then well… I got curious…"

Bou-san sighed heavily then looked accusingly at Ayako-san. She glared back. "What?" she asked defensively. "I just want to know whether she's going to be curious enough or not. At least with this I can understand another aspect of her." She's now looking at me. "And I believe that I can understand most of the rest, am I right, Mai?"

I jerked up. "Ah, well… I… maybe…" I stuttered then looking down again.

"In any case," Bou-san cut in. "You shouldn't act rushed, do you understand, Mai? This is something that we need to think about slowly, so please, _please_, do not do something reckless that just basing on your instant emotion, alright?" I nodded slightly. Bou-san relaxed a little. "Good. We are going to talk more about this tomorrow. Now, it's already pretty late at night, I think you should go back to bed and sleep. You will really need a good night sleep, trust me."

I nodded again and turned back to the corridor just right when Ayako-san called me again. "Mai!" I turned to her. She was looking at me with an unreadable expression. "I believe that you know what's best for you. And I want you to know that we are always be there for you, so…," she smiled. "Do not worry."

I stared at her for a moment, disbelieving at how she could always read right through me and became the greatest sister that I could ever wished to have. I smiled back at her. "Good night, Ayako-san."

Her smile became gentler. "Good night."

Bou-san looked at us and shook his head. "Girls," he mumbled softly. Ayako-san and I chuckled at that comment before we gave our last departing glance and Bou-san escorted me back to my bedroom. When I finally got into my bed again, I sighed heavily. I did really need a good night sleep but I didn't think I would be able to have one tonight as my thoughts had become a lot more complicated than before. I sighed again and closed my eyes. _Better try than give up,_ I said to myself before emptying my mind to drift myself into sleep.

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I opened my eyes at the sound of birds chirping but then I was spacing out tiredly. I guessed stress and good night sleep really didn't get along well. I had pretty much been able to sleep, but at the same time I still felt like my brain didn't get to sleep at all and I felt so tired. I sighed. _Better to do something than just spacing out on the bed_. I yawned and stretched out my stiff body. While still rubbing my sleepy eyes, I climbed down my bunk and reached out for my robe as the morning air was usually pretty cold at this time of hour. As I'd done at night, I walked quietly across the room and went out to the corridor. I peeked around the corner to see whether Ayako-san or Bou-san had already woken up or not but there was no light at all and everything was quite. I sighed in relieved. I didn't think I would be ready enough to talk about the conversation that I've overheard last night. I walked smoothly toward the kitchen, took out a stick broom and walked my way to the front yard. Actually it was not my turn today—to sweep the yard—but I needed something to accompany me while I was thinking.

I went to the front gate to start sweeping, but then I noticed that there were some mails in the mailbox so I went out to it. I opened the rusty steel shut rather difficultly and started to sort out the mails. It was when a tall robed guy came approaching me. I jumped back a little because of the surprise but the tall man bowed politely to me. "I'm so sorry for surprising you, young lady," he said. His voice was a bit husky and somehow sounded cold. "And for bothering you this early in the morning, but I needed a little of your assistance."

"A-and what would it be?" I asked him a bit confused.

"Do you by per chance can call out a young lady called Mai-san for me? There's something I need to talk to her," he said again with his weird voice.

I stared at him judgingly. "Then this may be your lucky day as the lady you are looking for is me myself. What could this business be that you want to talk to me?"

He stared at me for a second with his small black eyes before bowing again. "Then please excuse me," he said. Before I could even react, he hit me hard on the side neck. I was so surprised I could only choke out a groan of pain before the darkness totally consumed me in.

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**Told you the ending sucks. I hate that too. But other than that, I pretty much like this chapter. Especially the fact that it reached the number of 4000, yeeey! Hahahaha... Ok, so please tell me what you think about it. I'll be really glad for every reviews that I get, even if it's full with criticisms. Then, until next chapter! (which I pray with all of my heart that I can finish by next week coz' I'll be starting winter holiday by wednesday. Yey, holiday! XD)**


	5. 5:Can't I Stop Encountering Weird People

**Author's note: So, yeah, first thing to say: I AM SO VERY SORRY FOR THE SUPER LATE UPDATE! I was so overwhelmed in the last few weeks with reports, final exams, performances and airplane trip to go back home that I nearly didn't have the time to write at all.. I am so very sorry for this... But here I am, back again, so... yeah, I hope you guys still looking forward to read this story. I try my hard not to make it too long but it seems pretty hard to be done so, well, we'll just see what happen. Anyway, please, enjoy the chapter for now!**

**Disclaimer: Ghost Hunt is not mine... Yeah, yeah...**

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**Chapter 5: Can't I Stop Encountering Weird People?**

The first thing that I realized when my consciousness finally came back was that I couldn't move. My body felt powerless and my neck was hurting when I tried to move my head. I groaned in pain as I tried to gain my composure. I struggled to move a little but my hands, body and legs were restrained. My eyes cracked open slowly. It was blurry at first, but slowly an image of a large room came into my view. It was a dark room with only small ventilation near the ceiling that gave way for sunlight. My head felt fuzzy so I closed my eyes to focus my thought. _What has happened to me?_ I tried to remember. I remembered that I had not been able to go to sleep last night. I remembered that I had wanted to go sweeping the front yard to help me think. Then I remembered that a robed man had come to me and suddenly had hit me to unconsciousness when I was checking the mails. _Then that man must have brought me here,_ I thought. _But what is this place? Where is this?_ I looked around the room. It looked like a storing room with quite a lot of boxes half filled the room. I was seated on a chair in the middle of the room with my hands and legs were tied up with rope and my body was tied on to the chair. The rope weren't too tight but my whole body felt tired and my head was still hurting. Slowly, I tried to struggle again but it still didn't work.

_Who would have done this to me?_ I thought unbelievingly when I found that it was impossible for me to get out. _What have I done? What do they want from me?_ I looked around the room once more to find something that could help me figuring out what was happening. But there was nothing. It was just a usual store room with tons of cardboards being piled up. _Could this be an abandoned place? _I thought to myself. _ If it is so then it would be hard for anyone to find me here. What about Ayako-san, Bou-san and Rein? They must be really worried by now._ My eyes started to fill up with tears when I thought about them, but I shook my head quickly. _No! No! I mustn't cry! Crying won't help anything! I have to find a way out of here!_ Ignoring the pain caused by the earlier headshake, I observed my surrounding once again. The room did seem like a usual storeroom, but it didn't seem like it was an abandoned one. There weren't much dust around and this place seemed like pretty well maintained, which meant that it was used pretty often. I looked up in front of me where there was a big iron door standing—the only door in the room. _It's not that rusty either, _I thought. _Then this must be an actively used place. But what is this place and who use it?_

I closed my eyes and tried to listen. From the ventilation, soft noises of branches rubbed each other could be heard so I guessed this place was pretty far from town. Then I heard, even softer, the buzzing sound of operating machines like ones in those factories. I snapped open my eyes. It wasn't really clear but definitely there was a factory near this place. That factory might even the one who used this storeroom. _Then, would that be the one who kidnapped me is the owner of the factory?_ I asked myself. _But, who? And for what? _A factory owner must mean that my kidnapper was a rich person so money wouldn't have been the reason.I was from orphanage after all so no one could expect much money as an exchange. Then again, what kind of rich people would have wanted to kidnap someone like me? I didn't have that kind of value to them—and the only rich person that I had ever known was that rude guy named Naru._ Why is he called Naru anyway when his real name is Oliver Davis? _I couldn't help but to complain in my mind. But then I sighed. It was impossible for Davis-sama to do this just a day after he proposed to me; it just didn't make any sense.

_But then, there is still that thing that Ayako-san was talking about last night, _I thought again. _The thing about him cannot be trusted._ I sighed. _But even so, I can't believe him to do this kind of thing to me. There must be someone else!_ As I was thinking to myself, suddenly there was a sound of lock being open and the heavy sound of a chain being pulled before the heavy iron door in front of me moved open slowly. I squinted from the bright sunlight but still able to make out three silhouette on the door. One had a big and tall man figure like a minion, one had a tall but slim man figure while the other one—and the weirdest one—had a small and tiny figure of a woman. The biggest man closed the door again when they all had come inside. I blinked the brightness out of my eyes and could finally see the real look of them. My jaw was slightly hung open when I realized that the other two people were real beauties. The slim man had a bright golden hair and crystal blue eyes that both shining like sun and the sky. Even though he looked like a little uncomfortable and anxious, it still couldn't hide the beautiful face of his. While the lady, despite of her small body figure, had a straight composure that could make anyone feel inferior toward her. She had shoulder-length silk black hair and deep black eyes that somehow—along with her delicate face—made her look so beautiful it seemed unreal. They were both standing in front of me, the man awkwardly while the lady graciously—or rather menacingly?, looking like a heavenly painting of god and goddess, and I couldn't help myself to wonder if I was still dreaming. That was until the lady spoke.

"There thou at last awake," she said while looking at me disapprovingly. "Just how long thou pray for us to wait? Sleep all day but do nothing. Such a lazy bone, I see. Just what to be expected of a peasant. Ah, I just cannot see why is this happening." She waved her hand gracefully before put it on her forehead and acted like she was having a headache. I looked at her like she was some kind of an exotic creature. She spoke like she had just come out of an old literature book. And something about her voice made me felt so itchy that I had already wished for her to stop talking.

But as all of other wishes in the world, this one was just not happening. Partly because I knew that she must be the type who loved to chat, but mostly was because I wanted to get answers from her. So instead, I asked her, "Who are you? What do you want from me?"

She stopped her act and looked at me intensely with her pair of dark orbs. I tried my hard not to gulp. She snorted at me arrogantly and flicked her dark silk hair. "What impudence for thou to not know me! Lazy is one thing, but ignorance…" She shook her head disbelievingly. "Very well, I shall introduce myself then. I am called Masako Hara, the daughter of Duke Keichiro Hara, the neighboring town's Duke, and I," she squinted at me. "…am the legal fiancée of Oliver Davis."

A sudden understanding came to me. So this was what it had been all about. As much as I hated to admit but I kind of understood the reason why Davis-sama had dislike her so much. She walked toward me and stood menacingly. "Now thou, peasant! It is time for thy confession, what kind of trick art thou made use of to confuse Davis-sama?"

"I, what?" I asked in confuse. "What do you mean by trick? I have done nothing to confuse him. Or anyone at that. And what do you mean by confusing him anyway?"

"LIE!" She shouted angrily. "Yes, lie as always! Thou peasant have a living from lies! Why should I have expected any better? Though if thou shalt not confess thy sin then I shall let thee spend some more time here."

"What in the name of heaven are you talking about?" I snapped at her. Calling me peasant was one thing, but to say that peasants were living from lies was a whole different thing. It was simply unforgivable. "Stop talking with that old accent and stop calling me a peasant! So what if I am a peasant or an orphan? It doesn't make you be any better than me! You noblesse and your _highly_ attitude! Stop giving us commoners those injustice prejudices! And I don't know what are you accusing me of but I know nothing about it so will you just let me go!"

"My, what a rude one we have here. I know not such a lady could act like this. Though thou art not even one." I growled at her. She just gave me a disgusted look before she continued. "Very well. It seems thy brain art not capable to see the situation thyself so I will kindly explain it to thee." She leaned menacingly to me. "Thou, art _witch_! And a very sly witch at that. Thou casted some spell to confuse Davis-sama thus he came courted thee instead of me! Now he left me, suffering for wanting of thy love! How poor for he had fallen into thy evil trap… How despicable of thee!" She turned around in a dramatic way and covered her face with her hands while the blonde man gently stroked her shoulders though he still somehow acted anxious.

I was just simply stunned. "Um, what? You think I jinxed Davis-sama into courting me?"

"I not just think! I know thee did!" She stated matter-of-factly.

I gave her my most uninterested look. "Well then, you know wrong. I did nothing that made him proposed me. He came by his own."

"Thou can lie as much as thou want but I will never be deceived," she said with a cold expression.

"But I am not lying! I have done nothing of what you are accusing me!"

"Truly, we can do this for days long 'till thou confess."

"What? Are you even listening to me?" I shouted desperately. "I did nothing to be confessed about! I have never jinxed or put spell or anything to make Davis-sama court me! Nor that I am a witch! I've only ever met him twice for heaven's sake! And those are not exactly the best thing ever happened to me! Why would _I_ want _him_ to court me?"

"Thus what?" She shouted back at me with so much anger that I jumped a little on my chair. The blonde man tried to calm her down but she just shoved him off and continued shouting. "Art thou trying to say that he fell for thee at the first time? Twice thou said! Could it be possible for courting someone at the second meeting other than from a jinx? NO! It is not possible! Dost thou even know how long have I fallen for him? Known him? Long for him to be mine but is ignored? _Ten years!_ _Ten bloody years_ I have tried anything and everything for thus him give attention to me and acknowledge me as his fiancée but with no result; and now thou art sprouting… sprouting… _garbage_ about him _fell in love at first met_! How ridiculous! I would never believe that!"

"Masako-ojou-sama…," the blonde man whispered, gently soothed her shaking figure.

I was taken aback. I had not expected for her to be this desperate. Struggling for ten years to get the heart of a man who didn't even like her any bit. She must be very heartbroken to hear that the man whom she loved and fought for all this time had courted someone else. I started to take a pity at her. I might not understand how did it feel to love someone but I could understand the feeling of rejection and disappointment. I diverted my eyes to the ground; unable to look at her composed figure broke into a fit of tears as the blonde man hold her shaking body carefully. It was taken another minute before she finally calmed down. I was still looking at the ground. Suddenly she walked slowly toward me and stop right in front of me. I raised my head and look at her, trying not to feel too guilty. She was standing there, gripped her left arm with her right hand and looked away in hesitance.

Finally she sighed and looked at my eyes. "If thou insist on denying the claim, then tell me honestly," she asked in a soft but wavering voice. "Does he truly love thee?"

I was speechless. She just suspected that the man she loved might love someone else and she was already this shocked, what would ever happen if she found out that the only reason Naru had proposed me was because he wanted to get rid of her? Guilt stirred up my stomach like a storm. She might be quite a unique person and she might not have the best personality ever but she didn't deserve this. I couldn't let her know. So instead, I just whispered, "I don't know…"

She frowned. "What dost thou mean by not knowing?"

"I, I just… don't know…"

"Has he not ever told thee?" Doubt was in her voice.

I looked down. "I… I…"

But before I could think of any excuse, there was a noise outside, coming into the building direction in a fast speed. There were ruckus and shouts and the sound of people fighting. I looked up to the girl but she also looked confuse. The blonde man stepped in front and stood over her with a protective figure. Hara-sama—I'd finally decided to regard her like that, despite all of her lack of hostility attitude—gripped on his side blouse. "What would that be, John?"

"I don't know, Ojou-sama, but I am afraid that it would be the person we would least hope to come," said the blonde-man-called-John.

Hara-sama's face turned as pale as possible and panic was heard in her shaking voice when she spoke, "Oh, no! That could not happen… Why would he be coming here? That would be impossible for him not care of anyone but himself…" Her voice wavered in sadness. I looked at her and the same heartbroken expression as when she broke into tears was there. My heart jumped in a sudden realization of who they might be talking about. _But it couldn't be possible, right?_ I asked myself. _Because there is no benefit for him to come and get me here. It must be Rein or Bou-san who is coming; it couldn't be _him_, right?_

It just took a few second before the iron door was suddenly broke open, revealing two tall figures that were starting to become familiar to me; Davis-sama and his bodyguard, Koujo-san. It felt as if my heart had stopped beating in the second I saw his figure. I didn't know whether I should feel happy or not, to see him came to save me, but I felt confuse for sure. _Why?_ My mind asked deliberately. _Why would he come to save me?_ But my thoughts could wait for later as Davis-sama had stepped into the room with a somewhat scary cold aura. He looked around the room with a slow movement, leaving every other people held their breaths for they waited for his reaction. The atmosphere was so tense that no one dared to break the silence. He looked at me for a few seconds—his expression was as cold as ever, before he turned to look at Hara-sama and began to speak.

"I am very disappointed at you, Hara-san," he said coldly.

Hara-sama, who looked like had just woken up from a dream, shouted, "No! This is not what thou think! Pray allow me to explain!"

"I have no need of explanation. I have only one business to be taken care of here and it is only to take her back." Davis-sama glanced to Koujo-san. "Lin, Get her."

Koujo-san nodded and made his way toward me. But suddenly Hara-sama jumped out of John-san's protective figure and hastily blocked him from coming closer. John-san, who was shocked by her reckless action, hurriedly came to her and tried to pull her aside.

"Ojou-sama! This is not wise! Please, just let them take her!" he begged.

"No!" she exclaimed. "No! Davis-sama, pray listen! Now thou art being confused! This wretched woman has done something that confuses thee! Thou dost not want her love, truly? It must be a mistake! I just have wanted to save thee from her evil doing!"

"You are doing me no favor, Hara-san. You do realize, don't you? You are just making excuses to justify your irrational actions and I cannot accept that," said Davis-sama, not impressed at all with her argument.

Hara-sama looked taken aback. She stepped back and tremblingly covered her mouth in shock. John-san gently pulled her aside and soothed her trembling being. He then looked at Davis-sama and spoke with a soft tone, "I am truly sorry for the mistake that we have done. But it is not entirely Ojou-sama's fault for I was not proper enough in preventing this misdoing to happen, so please, Davis-sama, give mercy to her. While for this incident, I apologize with all regret to you and especially to Mai-sama"—He turned to me and bowed respectfully—"of all the trouble and discomfort that we have caused. Please, I beg for your understanding on this matter."

For the first time he actually looked at me and I saw true regret and some kind of sorrow in his eyes, as if he was trying to say some unmentionable things to me; and I thought I kind of understood what it was. So I said, "You are pardoned, John-san…"—Then I added "…and Hara-sama" after a thought—"It might not be the most pleasant morning surprise to have, and I would rather not experience another one if possible. But I do understand the matter happened here so as long as I get released, then we could be as good as assuming that this never happened."

John-san bowed again, rather enthusiastically this time. "Thank you very much, Mai-sama! Your generosity would never be forgotten!"

I nodded back awkwardly as a reply. Then Koujo-san moved around the pair to reach me and undid the rope. When the knots were opened, he offered his hand to help me stand up as I slowly stretched up my aching body. There was an awkward silent as I walked past Hara-sama and John-san with Koujo-san's supporting hand held my arm gently but firmly. Hara-sama looked like she was between being dumbstruck and shocked while John-san smiled faintly to me with his apologetic look and a faint sorrow in his eyes. I nodded politely toward them once again before I finally stopped in front of Davis-sama. Koujo-san released his grip and stepped aside while Davis-sama, who in turn took my arm gently to support me—much to my surprise, casted me an examining look for a few seconds before he looked at me approvingly and turned his face back to Hara-sama and John-san.

"John, I know you are such a capable and just person," he said. "So I am very disappointed to know that you could let this thing to happen. But then I also do not want to make a big fuss out of this so I will just let it go now. And I believe that I can trust you that this sort of thing would never happen again, am I correct?"

John-san bowed. "You have my word, My Lord."

"Good."

With that, Davis-sama took my wrist and lightly pulled me behind him toward the exit while Koujo-san followed us closely from behind. I threw a last glance to the standing pair; the previously exquisite figures of beauty had turned into a painting of broken angels, somehow leaving me a big black hole inside my stomach. I remembered the conversation that had happened while I was kept captured; about Hara-sama's feeling, Davis-sama's intention, and the proposal. I shifted my eyes back to Davis-sama's composed back. There were a lot of things to think about, but first, I needed a good long talk to be done with Davis-sama. I sighed then picked up my pace to match Davis-sama's long and fast steps, out of this place.

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**So, how was it? It was really hard to pull off the old english but I tried my best for it, I guess, soo I hope it was fine. Anyway, please do leave a review. I would be really glad to have one :)**


	6. Chp 6: Encounters, Gambles and Decisions

**Author's note: God! This is the longest chapter I've ever written! But first, I got to say sorry for the... well, hiatus.. kind of a hiatus.. I got this huge writing block and this chapter is filled with a lot of difficult conversation that I nearly gave up to write. I edited and re-write this one for over five times, for goodness sake! Anyway, please enjoy for now. I hope it will suit your taste :)**

Disclaimer: I don't know what else to write for disclaimer rather than GH is not mine.. -_-

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**Chapter 6: Encounters, Gambles and Decisions**

The journey back to the city wasn't exactly the most pleasant journey ever. Not that I had been in one much but the silence of Davis-sama and Koujo-san inside the carriage was just simply suffocating me. Not to mention the pressure to start a conversation—interrogation in a sense—with Davis-sama that had been crouching inside me. I sat anxiously in front of Davis-sama who was staring outside the window a little absentmindedly; but I knew better. I might have not known him for long but I had experienced so much casualties about him that I thought I might have started to understand him a little. I let out a soft sigh before I started speaking.

"So," I breathed out. I stole a glance but no one made a reaction. _Alriiight,_ I thought to myself. _I guessed they were just not too fond in chatting leisurely._ But I tried again. "Thank you… Davis-sama… for helping me. I really appreciate it."

"You are welcome," he answered without looking at me, or even blink.

I looked at him for a moment, waiting for him to say anything else, but he was just silent. I fidgeted in anxiety. My mind raced for a new topic for conversation. I spoke again, "How did you find me?"

This time, his eyes diverted to me. "It was the scholar, Takigawa-san, and the black haired boy. They have come to me and started accusing me of kidnapping you—well, mostly it was the black haired boy who was speaking, or yelling. But because I didn't, I figured that it might have something to do with that girl and I went to check it up and there you were."

I raised an eyebrow. "That girl? You mean Hara-sama?"

"Who else?"

"Oh." I couldn't say anything else. I had noticed that he had never regarded Hara-sama with her name every time he talked about her. _Does he not like her that much?_ I wondered. I stole another glance to him, who already had his gaze outside the window again. "Uhm, Davis-sama?" I called him again. "If I may know, why do you dislike Hara-sama so much?"

This time it was his turn to raise an eyebrow. "You still ask?"

I sweat dropped. "Well, I might quite see why, but I still don't think that it was an enough reason to dislike her that much."

"Into what extent of 'that much' are you talking about here?" he asked back.

"Um, well, to the extent that you don't want to marry her?" I answered rather unsure.

"Then let's assume that Hara-san was a man who proposed to you; would you accept her?" he asked again.

I was a bit surprise by this. "Um, I… Well…" I was stunned by the realization. _A man with old accent and stuck up personality will definitely be the last in my to-be-husband list,_ I thought bitterly. "Maybe not…"

"See what I mean?"

_I was losing the argument!_ I bit my lip. "Well, that might be so, but still, she is in love with you for ten whole years! Won't it make you feel a little, I don't know; flattered?"

"It might be," he admitted. "If her form of loving was not in the form of constant bothering. It's just sometime too hard to differentiate affection and stalking when it comes about her."

I frowned. "She couldn't be _that_ bad."

He looked at me in a skeptical look. "You could actually say that after she kidnapped you and accused you as a witch?"

I scrunched. "It… It was just because she loves you so much, don't she? Although what she's done isn't exactly a preferable action, but I think I can understand… a little…"

"I don't understand," he said sharply. "What are you getting at here?"

I shrugged. "No, I just… feel a little uncomfortable with all this. I don't think that she deserve to be cast aside with this kind of scheme just because of her accent or personality. Maybe she isn't the best person ever existed but she isn't a bad one either."

"You feel guilty," he nodded thoughtfully. "Because you think that her irrational actions were because of her love to me, therefore it is acceptable in your point of view. Hence you think that my proposal is wrong."

"Well, yes, but you don't have to put it that way," I pouted slightly.

He let out a sigh. "Look, I may do dislike her but I also understand that she is not a bad person either. It is not that I favor this way to cut this marriage with her, but our marriage is not a mere marriage; it is a political marriage. One of which my father, the Duke, will get a lot of advantages from. So I need to do it this way." He paused and looked at me in the eyes. "There are… _things,_ that I need to do but I won't be able to do it if this marriage continues."

I was confused. "Things? What things? Something more important than the advantages that you would gain from the marriage?"

"It is none of your business," he said coldly.

"Hey! I'm helping you here, mind you! So I would like to know what I am helping you at!" I said to him angrily.

"Even if I told you, you are not that bright to understand it anyway." He looked back to the window, as if it was the end of conversation.

I pouted angrily. _What an obnoxious man! Acting all mighty and clever! And _he_ said that Hara-sama has a personality problem!_ I thought grudgingly. "Well, if _I _am not that bright, why would you care to pick _me _then? I bet there are other girls out there who are _brighter_ than me. And with that good look of yours, I bet that they are going to fawn at you and be all over you and accept your proposal even without you have to say anything about these _things_ that you want to do!"

This time, he seemed interested. "You think I'm good looking?"

Somehow, his question made me blush. "We-well, aren't you? Even the girls in the orphanage said that you look…," I blushed even more. "…err, lovely?"

He seemed quite amused by this. He even smirked a little. "Hmm, is that so? That is quite a surprise. I've never thought that such a commoner like you would have a good taste of man."

"I-what?" I was shocked and blushing at the same time. I couldn't believe that he just said that. Wasn't it the same with he admitted himself that he was good looking? I didn't know what to say. _This annoying stuck up man is actually such a narcissist!_ I thought disbelievingly. "What a _wonderful_ revelation," I murmured to myself.

He frowned. "What did you say?"

"Uh, nothing. Hahaha…," I laughed nervously. Suddenly, a realization stroked me in the head. "Oh my God!" I gasped. "You are called Naru because you are a narcissist!"

A slight shock escaped his face. "Excuse me?"

Even Koujo-san had turned his attention to me with a slight amusement in his eyes. I was grinning from ear to ear. "You, Davis-sama, is called Naru by Yasuhara-san because you are a narcissist. He must have meant to mock you!"

Naru—_I will regard him as that from now on,_ I thought triumphantly—seemed to need quite some time to digest this new information. "…I can possibly consider that way of thinking."

I snorted. "What is that? _Considering?_ You just don't want to admit that I know something you don't."

"That is non-sense. I don't know everything. I just know what I know. Why would I not admit something so obvious?" he asked.

I gave it a thought. "Uh, well, because you are an obnoxious narcissist who does not like not being the best, most knowledgeable person of all?"

He frowned. "I really don't get how you could make an assumption like that, but I guess I can't help it if you think that I am the best, most knowledgeable person of all."

I glared at him. "You just want to irritate me."

"Now, why would I do that? It's just really impolite. I remember that in one of my manner classes; not to irritate people, not to make fun of people, and not to call someone a narcissist. It's a really interesting class, by the way. Why don't you take one?" He smiled in a very-sweet-but-evil manner that gave me a shiver.

"Fine!" I groaned frustratingly. "I'm sorry! It is rude of me to call you that. Now, will you answer my question or not? Why did you choose me?"

He put back his expressionless face. _He's a scary poker-face monster_, I thought grudgingly. "To put it simply," he said. "As I said before, I have things that I need to do. Ones of which that girl"—"Hara-sama," I corrected but he ignored me—"would not be able to be an aid of; but you may."

"And what is that 'things'?"

"I cannot tell you."

"What?" I looked at him in disbelief. "But how could I know whether I'm making the right choice or not?"

"And what do you mean by that?" He questioned, rather irritated.

"Well, if you don't tell me what your purposes are, then how would I know whether it's a good thing or a bad thing?" I tried to reason. "Who knows if your purpose might lead into a crime or something?"

He frowned, deeper than he ever did. "I'm the duke's son and you doubt me?"

I shrugged. "You have bad rumors going on around. You are one of those troublemaker noblesse brats that are being talked about in the town. I'm just being careful."

Somehow, his facial expression hardened a bit, but in just a split second it turned back to his usual face again. "I see. I understand your situation but I'm afraid that this would be another requirement that I need to put. Whether you are going to accept my proposal or not, you cannot meddle with my business. In the exchange of your cooperation, I can offer you a peaceful life with enough money and food for you and your friends in the orphanage. And I will ensure your security too so you do not need to worry. But what is my business will just be my business, and what is yours will just be yours. This will be a true business relationship."

I didn't know why, but when I heard that came out of his mouth, I felt like my stomach fell into emptiness and I felt this uneasy feeling. It almost felt like I was sad. Why, I didn't know. I sighed. "So, let me get this clear. You have proposed me to be your wife _slash_ assistant because you want to forfeit from your wedding with Hara-sama, because you think that it will hinder you from doing whatever this thing you need to do—things that I may not know what it is regardless of its risks; all for an exchange of fortune, wealth and security for the orphanage people and I that I can get as your so-called wife?"

"So you do need a summary after all," he said.

I glared at him before I fell back deep into my thoughts. This offer had become a very risky gambling. I needed to know what was going on with my past, and I really did need money for the orphanage. The temptation of a nice living environment that I could give to Ayako-san and the children in the orphanage was so alluring. But in the other hand, as the exchange, I had to work to a noblesse thug whose purposes were unknown despite of its suspicious nature. Who knew what kind of crime I might end up giving a hand to? It was a choice between my curiosity and my safety. _And they say that curiosity kills the cat_, my mind mourned unhelpfully. I sighed again. "Fine then. I understand the situation now. I will consider it."

He nodded. "Good." Then he looked out of the window again. Following him, I looked out too. We had gone out of the thick forest and on our way along the river bank. It was a really big river which one of its curves was crossing near the town. It was the very same river that was flowing in the small forest behind our orphanage mansion. The carriage was moving toward the east where there was a huge bridge road that led to the town's main gate. The bridge was still another one or two hours journey from there but I could already see the silhouette of the town, along with its vast and green hills where shepherds usually brought their sheep to eat. I could also see the farm lands near the town's borders, filled with animals and growing plants. It was such a beautiful sight.

As I was admiring the beautiful scenery before me, a sudden realization stroked. _If I am about to be the wife of the duke's only son, wouldn't that mean all of these beautiful places and its wealth would be mine?_ I thought in shock. I crawled closer to the window. _All of this huge land? And I'm going to be the Duchess, right? And like, ruling this city?_ "Whoa," I gasped absentmindedly.

"You have never seen the city from outside?" Naru's voice woke me up from my thoughts. He was looking at me in an observing look. My face went red as I realized what I had been thinking about, and I quickly drew myself from the window.

I looked down in embarrassment. "Ah, no, it's not like that. I've seen it in a couple of times, but it's just… I-I have never seen it this beautiful." My heart was pounding so hard. _What a pathetic lie!_ My mind cried depressingly. But he just gave a short "Hmm" as an answer and went back to looking outside. I silently let out a sigh of relief.

I couldn't believe I had just thought of being the Duchess! That was so embarrassing! I cursed at myself. This was insane! To say that the thought of that wealth had made me lost my mind for a second there._ I must be really tired right now._ I exhaled slowly. In any case, I should talk with Rein about all this. I bet that Ayako-san and Bou-san hadn't told him anything about my past story yet and I needed another opinion regarding this. Even though Rein didn't seem to like Naru, and he hated this idea in the first place, he would always give his opinion truthfully and objectively. _That is what he's really good at after all._ I smiled a little. I looked out of the window again. Today and yesterday was seemed to be like a dream to me. So many had happened and my life seemed to be taking an extreme turn in just a couple of hours. I didn't know if it was called fate or anything, but I felt really calm, as if I knew I was on the right track. _I wonder if I do, though_, I added in my mind. As we reached the town's gate, a relaxing feeling started to fill me up, a nice swift breeze swept through my face, and familiar warmth enveloped my whole body. It felt so nostalgic that I couldn't believe that I had only left the town for a few hours. _And I really miss everyone in the orphanage,_ I realized rather surprisingly. I knew what I should do. No; I knew what I wanted to do. It was as if everything was just flowing into me. It was as if it was shown to me. _Maybe it is fate after all,_ I thought. I couldn't help but smiled. "Home sweet home."

* * *

When the carriage was nearing the orphanage, I hauled myself out of the window to enjoy the view. The orphanage was actually a mansion that was built a long long time ago. It was placed on a far-end of the city, just right at the other end of the city border where there was a small forest. The orphanage was stood around the entrance of it, nicely shadowed by the tress but not too deep into the forest. And although it looked a lot like an old ruined building, but its magnificent could still be seen. I squinted to see past the mansion gate. There was someone sitting on the front porch, absentmindedly looking at the ground while playing a long wood stick in one hand. I leaned forward to see it better.

"Don't come out of the window like that," Naru's voice broke my excitement. "It makes you look like a dog."

With an amazing speed, I turned around and faced him. "Excuse me? What did you just say I look like?"

"You heard me. Don't make me repeat myself," he said not a least care.

I scoffed at him. "What an impudent person!" I grumbled under my breath before getting my head out of the window again. The orphanage was getting closer and I could finally see the figure who was sitting by the porch. My heart jumped in excitement and I waved my arm while shouting with all my strength. "REIN! HEY! I'M BAAAACK!"

Rein looked a little startled when he was looking up, but then he grinned from ear to ear and started to run for the gate. The carriage came to a halt right when Rein came out of the gate, and I quickly opened the door and jumped off even before the driver could move from his seat. Rein ran to me and gave me a big crushing hug while shouting with an ear-deafening voice. "MAI! YOU'RE BACK! Good heaven! Do you know how much I'm worried about you? You, stupid girl!"

I couldn't hold my laugh at his reaction, but I gently hugged him back in relieve. "I'm sorry. But it's not that I chose to be kidnapped!"

"I know. But I'm still mad at you for making me worried," he said as he pinched my cheeks very hurtfully. I complained and struggled to him so that he would let go of my cheeks but he just laughed the more. Suddenly there was a creaking sound behind us and I just remembered that Naru and Koujo-san were still with us. I quickly got myself free and turned to them with a smile.

"Thank you," I said gratefully. "For saving me and bringing me home. I couldn't thank you enough."

"No need to thank me. I just wanted him to stop bothering me." While saying that, Naru and Rein exchanged cold glares to each other.

I sighed and gave Rein a nudge on the ribs. "Come on, Rein, stop that! He saved me, remember?"

He looked at me in disagreement but I didn't budge. So he just sighed and said "Thank you" in a monotone voice. At that moment, I wasn't really sure but I thought that I saw a satisfied smirk on Naru's face, but it was gone as soon as it appeared. He nodded to Rein—still without expression—as a reply. Rein just scoffed at him and continued, "Anyway, I need you to come inside first before heading back because Bou-san and Ayako-san demand an explanation from you about this matter."

"Very well. I would like to have an audience with them too." Naru then told the carriage driver to wait outside before following Rein into the building.

I walked beside him and whispered, "What do you want to talk about with Bou-san and Ayako-san?"

"Just explaining about today's incident," answered Naru. "And to tell them not to meddle with your decision."

"What?" I hissed. "What do you mean by that? They have never meddled with my decision! I always make my own decision!"

"That is good then," he said, but he didn't say anything anymore. I looked at him in half confuse and half disbelief. _What in the world does he think he's doing? Does he really like to make people angry at him?_ I just couldn't get his way of thinking at all. As we reached the porch, the front door was suddenly opened and Ayako-san stomped her way to us. Bou-san was behind her, looking a little tired, but when he saw me he rushed forward with a very wide smile and gave me another bone-crushing hug.

"MAI! Thank goodness you're safe! I've been so worried about you! Are you alright? Have you been hurt? Where are you hurt? Let me take a look!" bombarded Bou-san as he turned me around me and around, checking if I had any wound. I giggled at his over-worrying and quickly stopped him from turning me again before I would actually become dizzy.

"Bou-san! I'm fine! Don't worry!" I laughed a little. "I'm not hurt anywhere so please, calm down," I said assuring him.

Bou-san stopped turning me around, but instead he took my hands and examined them. On my wrists, there were two clear red marks of the rope that had tied me. I might have not noticed it because of the excitement, but those marks were quite nasty. "You said that you're not hurt but these are quite the injury."

I pulled my hands slowly from him. "It's not something big. I just happened to hurt them when I struggled with the rope. It doesn't hurt at all."

"But it still need to be tended," said Bou-san insistently. He turned to Rein. "Rein, please take her to the nursing room. You can help tending these wound, right?"

"Of course," answered Rein.

"But, Naru—I mean, Davis-sama?"

"We'll be taking care of him," Ayako-san said with a grim tone.

I looked at Naru in worry but he just shrugged his head in the direction of the door and said, "Just go tend your wounds."

So I just let out a sigh and followed Rein into the house. Once we were inside, Rein took my hands to examine the wound himself. "Hmm," he mused. "These are quite shallow than what I've thought it would. Why didn't they tie you any tighter?"

"You hope them to?" I asked him sarcastically.

He laughed. "No, of course not! I'm just wondering why didn't they. You were their prisoner after all. I thought that they would be harsher than this."

"Well… Yes…," I said slowly. Somehow I remembered the blond man who was with Hara-sama, and the look he gave me before I got released. That look seemed so sad that it was almost like he was in some kind of a pain. _Could it be?_ My mind wondered doubtfully. "I'm not really sure either… Rather than that, I have something I need to talk to you about."

"What is it?"

"But promise me that you won't interrupt me while I'm talking?" I asked just to be sure.

"I cross my heart," answered Rein. "What do you want to say?"

So as we walked to the nursing room, I told him everything. Starting from the story about my past and the orphanage, about Hara-sama, to the revelation of Naru's other purposes. I thought that Rein would probably break his promise and throw harsh comments while insistently try to convince me from dealing with this problem any longer, but he was surprisingly quiet and listened to me calmly. As I finished my story, he fell into deep thoughts while putting medicine and bandage on my hurt wrists. I waited for him to finish tending my hands before asking, "Well? What do you think?"

Rein sighed and put both his arms on the back of his head. His face was somewhat grim. "Complicated," he answered. "I think I'm starting to see what could be happening here, but there are still quite some missing pieces."

I frowned. "Missing pieces? Then… do you mean…?"

He looked me in the eyes. "Yes. We need to investigate it further."

I gulped. I knew that I would eventually need to find out more about this matter, but somehow saying it out loud made me feel very nervous. Rein sighed again and leaned closer to me. "I do not want to say this, but I think that you may be involved in something really bad here. I mean, if the Duke would have done something as far as to take down Ayako-san family's business because of you, this must be really serious."

"Bu-but, Ayako-san said that it wasn't necessarily the Duke who had done that," I said. "It could be someone else who held a grudge to Matsuzaki-san or maybe it was a coincident that his business fell into loss just after that happened."

Rein looked at me in a skeptical look. "Really? Mai? Do you really think so?" I couldn't say anything to that. Rein exhaled loudly. "Look, Mai, I also don't want to jump into conclusion, but seeing the situation, it is hard to say that the Duke was not involved in this. And now that you've come to this, I think it would be hard for you to go back anymore. Not that that noblesse brat has found you. The letter was right. You're not supposed to make any contact with them."

My heart sank. "What do you mean by that? Do you think Davis-sama has anything to do with this? That he has come to find me in purpose? Is that what he meant as his other purposes?"

"I'm not sure either. But like what Ayako-san has said, there is a probability," answered Rein. "And yes, this matter about his other purposes is really worrying me. Especially that he has said he won't tell you about it; and I can't figure out what is it with just this little of information. Regardless that, with him knowing your existent in here is already bad enough."

I tried to digest this all. "So that is why you said that I won't be able to go back… Because my existent is somewhat troubling the Duke, once they have found me then it will be a matter of time for them to do something to us." I looked up at him. "So you think that it will be better if I step up and see what happen?"

He shrugged. "We can always try to run from them though. But I don't think that you would want to do that, would you?"

Slowly, I shook my head. "No…," I answered quietly. If I tried to run away, then I wouldn't just risk my own life but also everyone in the orphanage. I wouldn't want that to happen. I had caused them enough misery with the bankruptcy of Ayako-san's family—I could never risk their life. I looked at Rein again. "But then, what is it about me that the Duke would do something like that? Have you figured that out?"

"I've told you," said Rein. "I might have a glimpse of what happened but I cannot jump to conclusion yet. We need to find more evidence; we need to investigate it further."

"It is decided then, what I am suppose to do," I said, still in a little bit of daze because of the realization.

Rein looked at me with a sad expression. He took my hand and gave it a small press. "I don't want you to, to be honest. It's a sick world that noblesse are living at. There would be the last place I would ever hope you to end up in. But…," he snorted a little sadly. "I know you. It would be useless to tell you to stop." Then he smiled at me in a knowing way. "And I bet that you have actually made the decision even before you came to me, am I right?"

I grinned guiltily. "Well, you know me."

Rein gave a defeated sigh. "Fine then. Do as you like. I will help you."

I beamed at him. "Thank you, Rein! I truly owe you for this!"

"Yes, you definitely do," Rein answered with a soft smile.

I smiled back at him, and then I jumped off the bed and pulled him toward the door. "Come. Let's tell them now. Before they go back home."

"Now?" Rein asked, surprised. "Why so sudden?"

I smiled sheepishly. "I don't want to change my mind later."

Rein looked at me with an unreadable expression for a moment, but then he sighed. "It's going to be chaos."

I laughed at that before pulled him along with me to the hall. I walked in a quick-step. Rein and I had spent quite some time in the nursing room and I was afraid that Ayako-san and Bou-san were so angry that they had drove Naru out of the orphanage already. _Well, it would most likely to be Ayako-san rather than Bou-san who does it, but it's not the problem here_, I thought to myself. When I reached the main hall, there was no one there. I bit my lips. _Oh, please, let them still be here!_ I pleaded in my mind. Somehow, after what had happened today, the idea of going to Naru's place by myself was making me nervous. There might be a chance that I would run into Hara-sama again and I didn't want to risk it.

I went out of the front door and searched for any sign of Naru or his men. Rein was following me behind quietly. I noticed Naru's carriage and the driver were still outside the gate so I figured that he was still here. "Maybe they are talking inside," I mused.

"Seems so," replied Rein as he was looking at the carriage too.

We were about to turn back inside when the door was opened, revealing Koujo-san and Naru who were about to walk out. Behind them were Bou-san and Ayako-san who seemed rather grim. Looking at them stirred the guilt inside me, but I braved myself. "Na—eh, Davis-sama, there is something…"

"Are your wrists alright?" Naru interrupted.

"Ah, yes… They are fine…," I answered, rather surprise with the abrupt question. "Thank you, for asking. But that is not what I want to talk about."

"Well, then, I'm listening."

"Um, yes… Well, to say it in short," I looked at his eyes with determination. _Those eyes ARE beautiful_, my mind went on its own. I blinked. "I will accept your offer."

There was a silence for a moment. Even Naru and Koujo-san looked a little surprised. "…Really?" Naru asked rather unconsciously.

I gave him a small assuring smile. "Yes."

The silence was suddenly broken by Ayako-san's warning voice. "Mai, are you sure? You don't have to force yourself to do this."

"I am sure, Ayako-san. I'm not forcing myself to do anything. I know what I'm doing," I assured her.

"But…" She was still in doubt. Her eyes looked at everyone and it stopped at Rein. "Rein! Aren't you against this?"

Rein glanced at me before answered. "We have our talk, Ayako-san. I'm sorry."

Ayako-san looked as if she was about to argue again, but she stopped and sighed. "It's your choice, Mai. I won't prohibit you." I smiled widely at her. I went to her, took her hands and mouthed a thank you. She faintly smiled back.

"Alright," Naru said. "If that is settled, I shall start all the preparation."

"Not so fast, Davis-sama," Rein suddenly interrupted. "We do have our own conditions."

"We do?" I asked Rein, confused. But he just glared at me before continued.

"First, Mai shall always be allowed to go wherever she wants, whenever she wants," Rein said. "Second, the people from the orphanage shall always be allowed to meet her wherever they want, whenever they want. And then, the last one," he took breath. "I shall be her first hand personal guard."

"What?" I looked at him in surprise. "No! You can't do that! You hate that kind of place! I can't let you go back there!"

Naru raised an eyebrow. "Go back?"

I gasped. _Stupid Maiiiiii!_ I cursed to myself. _How could I slip like that?_ I was desperately trying to find an excuse. "Um, no… It's just like… Rein was like… You know…"

"It's none of your business, _Davis-sama_." Rein glared at him with the coldest stare I had ever seen. I immediately shut my mouth. "So those are our conditions. If you can't meet even one, then the deal is off."

"Rein…" I couldn't believe that he would do this much for me. To think that he would risk going back to noblesse world because of this. And he didn't even forget to think about my freedom as a condition against Naru. I would have not even thought about that.

Somehow, Naru seemed unimpressed. "I see that you really are a sassy boy, aren't you? This not even matters you but you just go making rules around like you're some kind of a king. Are you sure you're not a noble?"

Rein growled threateningly. I quickly gripped his arm to prevent any troubles that were on the verge of breaking. "Davis-sama, that is not nice," I scolded Naru. He looked at me with his cold stare, then to Rein, and then he sighed. "Fine. I have my conditions, you have yours. I accept."

Rein nodded approvingly. "Good."

"So now that it's finally settled," Naru raised an eyebrow toward Rein. Rein just scoffed at him. "I will head my way back to take care of all the necessary preparation—and I suggest you to do the same, Mai-san. I will contact you again in a few days time." I nodded at him. "Very well then. I'm taking my leave now." He tilted his hat a little as a salute before heading down the porch.

I rushed to him. "Davis-sama, let me escort you to the gate."

He stared at me for a second before nodding. I walked beside him while Koujo-san was walking a little behind us. We walked silently to the front gate, much or less very alike to when we were in the carriage. I stole a glance to Naru. He looked forward, without any trace of expression on his face. He walked very confidently and graciously, as if he knew that there would be no one who could bother him. I wondered where he got that confidence from. _But I guess that would be what is expected from a duke's son_, I thought. _He does have the whole town for himself. That would make anyone very confident._

"If you don't look in front, you're going to trip, Mai-san," said Naru suddenly without even turning his head.

I gasped in embarrassment and looked back in front. "I-I wasn't like looking at you! I was just thinking!"

"And what are you thinking about?" he asked.

"Lots of thing! It's not like you need to know," I answered stone-headedly.

"It's not like I want to know. I'm just being polite," answered him back.

I cursed myself. _I should have known not to try going against him!_ I sighed. "Hey, can I call you Naru?"

He stopped. "What?"

"Ah, I don't mean to mock you or anything!" I quickly explained. "I just want to befriend with you; especially if we are going to do this make-believe marriage together. Somehow I feel calmer if I can be closer with people around me, and calling you Davis-sama feels too formal that it makes me feel uncomfortable. But to call you with your first name is somewhat inappropriate, so I think, maybe I should call you with your nickname. After all it is a mocking nickname, so I think it doesn't necessarily too close nor too far, so…" I closed my eyes. _Aaaah… Idiot… Now you're ranting meaninglessly by yourself,_ I groaned silently.

"Fine. You can call me that." I heard Naru said. I opened my eyes in surprise. Naru was already continued walking in front of me. "And as an exchange, I will also drop the honorific to you."

I beamed at him. "Yes, sir! Thank you, sir!"

"Stop acting like an idiot, Mai. Even if I know that you can't help it," said Naru with a flat tone.

I scoffed at him but I couldn't help to notice that he had dropped the honorific already. "I'm in a really good mood right now, so I'll let you off this time," I said. Then I added, "Na~ru~" Naru glared at me with an annoyed expression but he didn't say anything. I just grinned happily to him. _Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all,_ I thought happily as I caught up my steps to him.

* * *

**Well... That is it. So much for the drama *roll eyes. How do you guys like it? Or not? Give me your comments, please. Especially if you think that there are some unnecessary parts, because, damn, this is so freaking long! And somehow my language starts to become too modern and slank *sigh. I got to start watching old British movie again...**

**Well then, until next time! :D**


	7. Chp 7: Encountering Just Another Problem

**Author's note: Whoa! It's been ages since I last updated! Sorry about that guys.. Guess I'm just very lazy to try getting out another chapter of my dead brain.. Hope you guys still in tune though.. But I have a special thanks for Yewberry Noon (I'm sorry if I misspell) for giving me the best review I have ever had! I'm so surprised and happy reading your comment XD It really gives me motivation to continue writing :)) Well, I hope this will satisfy your wait! Have a good read! :D**

**Disclaimer: If I am the owner of GH, Naru and Mai will be together, ASAP!**

* * *

**Chapter 7: Encountering **_**Just **_**another Problem**

There was a huge commotion when I finally announced my somewhat-of-an-engagement with Naru to the people in the orphanage that night. Especially between the girls. "What? Mai-nee is actually marrying the Duke's son?" screamed them. "No way! How come? How envious! You're so lucky!"

The boys' cries of protests were worse. "No way! You are actually going to get married? It's the end of the world!"

I glared murderously at the boys. "Yes, my 'beloved' brothers. Unfortunately I do. I'm sorry for not meeting your expectations."

They laughed at that. Jake, the second oldest guy after Rein, said in between his laugh. "Sorry Mai. That's not what we meant. It's just that it really is a surprise. Because you have never really seemed to think about stuff like marriage, and then now not only that you suddenly have your hand of marriage taken, it was taken by none other than the Duke's only son himself! Anyone would wonder if that's really true!"

"But it _is_ true!" I said in annoyance.

"Yes, of course it's true!" said Marie enthusiastically. "Why wouldn't it? Didn't you guys see that one time when he declared his proposal in the hall? It was the most daring and romantic proposal I have ever seen! 'I am here to take Mai as my wife', he said! Aaah, I'm still trembling when I remember that!"

"Yes, Marie, I bet it was the most romantic proposal you've ever seen. How many have you seen before, by the way? Zero?" said Seiji sarcastically. The other boys laughed at his 'smart' comment and did a sort of mass high-five. The girls were glaring at them in annoy but then decided to ignore them. Instead, they turned to me and started to flood me with questions.

"So, Mai, tell us the whole story! How did you two meet?" asked Jane with sparkling eyes. The other girls had circled around me and staring with the same sparkling eyes, and begging, "Tell! Tell! Tell! Tell!"

I edged back from the intense stares. "It wasn't really something worth to tell…," I desperately tried to get myself out of the situation. I really didn't want to tell lies to them, but seeing from the situation, it was not possible to explain anything about Naru's proposal without telling lies.

"Oh, come on, Mai-nee! Don't be so stingy!" whined the girls. "You haven't even told us anything about this! Aren't we sisters? How could you not share such a wonderful story like this? We want to know! Pleaaaaaaase!" They were begging so hard that I didn't have the heart to turn them down. But I wasn't sure whether I should say anything about this or not. I stole glances to Rein, Ayako-san and Bou-san for help. They seemed hesitated for a moment, but then Bou-san clapped his hand and smiled to us.

"Well, Mai," he said. "I guess it won't hurt anyone if you share the story a little. Though it _is_ not something great to tell, so don't be too disappointed afterwards, girls." He winked playfully, but I understood what he meant. 'Tell them what they want to hear, but not everything' was what he wanted to tell me.

The girls were beaming excitedly by Bou-san's words and then looking back at me with anticipation. I let out a desperation sigh as I was thinking about where I should begin the story. "Well, it wasn't some kind of a great meeting or anything. I was in the market to fetch some stuff with Rein. And then we kind of got separated with each other—well, it's actually just Rein didn't come on time at the promised place"—I glared at Rein at this point but he just played dumb by whistling around innocently—"so I looked around to find him; and that was when I mistaken Na…Davis-sama with Rein, and there we met. He was with Yasuhara-san—the guy with brownish hair and glasses if you don't know—and they were just taking a walk around the market. Yasuhara-san offered me a help to look for Rein but I politely declined, and that was about everything there to it. The next thing I know, they came here the next day and you know the rest of the story."

I peered at Bou-san, Rein and Ayako-san, scared that I might have said too much or said something weird in the story. They didn't say anything but they were also waiting worriedly for the reactions of the others. There was a moment of silent before finally Marie raised a question, "So is that mean Mai-nee has only met the Duke's son two days ago?"

"…Yes."

"And you have only talked to him about searching for Rein?" This time, Keita asked with an unbelieving tone.

I started to get nervous. "Mostly… yes…"

"And he came to propose you on the next day?" Jake asked disbelievingly.

I gulped, feared that my answer would bring to the worst. "…Yes?" I answered rather unsure. Then I added in panic. "That is why I said that there is nothing to it! I mean, I don't even understand why he did that! When I realized, all I knew was that he was already proposing me! I mean, he wasn't even explaining himself so I don't really know what to think either! It's not like there is something else!" At that note, my voice was already half-shrieking and all high-pitched that it was nearly obvious that I was hiding something. My mind was panicking and spinning in full speed to find a way out of this blatant lie. But shockingly, instead of another round of heavy silent, an adoring moan came out of the girls.

I looked at them in surprise. "What was that for?"

"You are so lucky, Mai," sighed Jane in an envy manner. "To think that a noble can fall in love with you at first sight! One would never even dream that to actually happen! And to top it off, he came fearlessly to propose you right away! Can you imagine what kind of trouble he would have to get through by doing this? I never thought that the Duke's son would be this romantic. The saying that he's a troublesome brat was just a rumor after all." The other girls were agreeing with her and started giggling at the thought of a newly-found romanticist young nobleman so called Oliver Davis. Somehow the thought of Naru as a romanticist gave a shiver down my spine. No matter how nice Naru could actually be, I would never be able to imagine him as a romanticist. And if he ever did, then maybe a rain of icicle was probably on its way to the town.

The boys snorted at the girls. "No kidding? Seriously? Love at first sight? I mean, how more lame he could be?" Seiji sneered with a mocking smirk on his face.

"Yeah," said Keita. "And _to top it off_, he came to propose on the _next day_! I mean, this guy seriously has a problem!" They laughed very hard as the girls eyeing them with ferocious eyes.

"Hey, guys, come on! Don't be so rude to him," Rein cut in suddenly. "Every person has the right to do what they want to do. After all, he's just a romanticist; and a dandy one that is!" The boys' laughter got even louder while Rein threw me a mocking smirk. I just rolled my eyes at him. _That idiot just can't let go any chance to mock me_, I thought grudgingly. At this point, the girls were already very annoyed with the boys' endless mocking.

"Oh, please! You guys are just being childish. Childish and jealous because you can't be as mature as Davis-sama," said Jane as she flicked her hair rudely to the boys. "What is wrong with love at first sight? And an honest and immediate proposal is an appropriate way to court a lady. Only _gentlemen_ know that, though."

"Oh now you're calling him gentleman after all this time you were saying that he's a noblesse brat? So much for being a lady," Seiji retorted back.

They were starting to glare menacingly to each other. Unable to accept the false imagination of the other girls and not to dare to let the fight get more heated than this, I immediately cut in. "Come on, everyone! Don't fight over something like that. It's not like he's like that. Rather than romanticist, I would say that he's just an egoist spoiled rich brat who likes to do everything in his own pace regardless of what others say. And he doesn't even care if it will trouble others! And didn't you see how he acted when he came here? He was acting like this whole place is his own, and, and his attitude! Can you believe that? He was all arrogant and obnoxious and just downright annoying! What is with him acting like he knows everything and like he's the smartest person alive? I really can't believe his attitude!"

Rein's chuckle surprised me. Without realizing it, I have gone ranting myself out. I looked at the others; everyone was struck silent and looking at me with unreadable expressions on their faces. My face reddened with embarrassment. _What on earth have I done! _I cursed to myself. _I make it seems like Naru is the jerkiest person alive and I really hate him. Not that there is no truth in there, but still…_ "Uh…," I said again. "Bu-but, despite all that, there are still good points about him… I think… Any other ways, he has helped me today, and he also showed some kind of concern towards us, so I don't think that he's really a bad person, so I think that it won't hurt to accept his proposal… Or something likes that…" My voice was slowly quieted down and I blushed some more. Oh, how I wished I had just shut my mouth!

Before anyone could react to that, again Bou-san clapped his hand loudly and said, "Alright, alright! That is enough story-telling for the night! Everyone, get up and start help cleaning the room before get into bed! Come on! What are you waiting for? Up, up, and on you go!"

Everyone was startled by that and hurriedly scrawled up from their sitting spots to clean up the room and get ready for bed. I sighed in relief and started to help too when Bou-san came to me with a smirking face. I knew it wouldn't be anything good so I pouted and asked, "What?"

Bou-san grinned widely. "Nothing. You gave a good speech tonight." He laughed merrily as I pouted at him.

"Yes, yes, laugh all you want. Whose idea was it anyway to tell them all about it?" I said in annoy.

His laughed ceased a little as he said, "They'll haunt you for live if you didn't tell them tonight. Be grateful, I'm just trying to save your life. Though the way you tell the story was your own done, so don't blame me for it." He laughed again. I just scoffed at him. When his laugh finally quieted down, he raised his big hand to ruffle my hair. "You know, Mai? If I hadn't known better, I would have thought that you've truly fallen for that Davis lad. But then again, I don't remember you have any acting skills." With that note, he winked at me and went to take Jun, the youngest kid, to the boys' bedroom. I watched him leave in disbelief, feeling embarrassed and confused at the same time.

_What is he trying to imply?_ "It's not like I fall for him or anything," I muttered under my breath. But somehow, my heart beat faster at the thought and I could feel my face became very hot. I screamed inwardly. _It's nothing like that! It's nothing like that at all! It's just because it feels very awkward to talk about this that I feel totally embarrassed! It has nothing to do with the feeling of love!_ I tried to convince myself. After I feel satisfied with my own reasoning, I started to make my way to the bedroom.

* * *

After that night when I had told my 'roman' story to the other children, they just would never let me get out of it. Anywhere, anytime, whenever they could find the chance to, they would always nag me about it. The girls were crazy about the wedding; the party, the foods, the decorations, the flowers, the guests, the dresses—_oh, especially the dresses!_—they just wouldn't stop talking and asking me about it. But the girls were still bearable if I had to compare them with what the boys were doing. They kept on teasing me by reenacting scenes of idiotic lovey-dovey couple as if they were Naru and me. The problem was that their acts were truly hilarious that I couldn't help laughing together with them even though I was supposed to be mad at them. And that made me even more irritated by it. Bou-san and Ayako-san seemed to be having fun by all the madness that I had to go through so they didn't really try to do anything about it. And I was expecting the same from Rein, who loved to tease me as much as his love to apple pie, but strangely, I rarely get a glance of him. He just always seemed to disappear somewhere and would only reappear again when it was time to dinner or chores. That made me a bit worried but I rarely had a chance to be by myself, let alone to go looking for him, so I just took note to myself to ask him about it later on.

These euphoria and enthusiasm lasted for around a week before everyone started to calm down and only talked about it every once in a while, either it's giggling or mocking around by themselves. After another couple of days passed again without any single news from Naru or Yasuhara-san, the excited chatters and the happy giggles were slowly decreasing, replaced by a rather worried murmurs and uneasy questions. I tried to act as if nothing was wrong but I also started to feel uneasy with the silence and the stillness of the situation. Everyone was also trying to act naturally and happily around me, even though it was still pretty obvious that they were trying really hard to avoid any conversation related to marriage. Even Ayako-san and Bou-san were acting restless and I often caught them exchanging a worried look when they thought I wasn't looking. Rein was making it worse for me because not only he was disappearing more frequently; he had also absolutely refused to tell me the reason why he did that. Now not only I couldn't talk to him about Naru, I need to worry about him as well. Like my problems were not enough yet.

After a couple more days passed, and I was starting to think whether it'd be a good idea to go to Naru's mansion and see what was really happening to him, a big black fancy carriage was making its way to the orphanage's gate. It was Naru's, of course. I could remember it so clearly as if it was just yesterday I last seen it. With much anxiety rather than enthusiasm, I ran to the front porch and watched as Naru, Yasuhara-san and Koujo-san walked across the front yard. When they reached the porch, I called to him, "Naru?"

With grim expression, he greeted back, "Hello, Mai. Long time no see."

I gulped. "Is everything alright?"

"I'm afraid not," he admitted. "We need to talk. Are Takigawa-san and Matsuzaki-san home?"

"Ah, yes… They are inside. Please, come in," I answered as I gestured them to come in. When they were coming in, Bou-san and Ayako-san had already waiting in the hall. There was a heavy awkward atmosphere in the air as Ayako-san and Naru stared to each other.

"Davis-sama," Ayako-san began. Her voice was heavy with threat. "It's truly been a while. I wonder what kind of business do you might have in here."

Naru, with his usual cold expression, answered with as much pressure in his tone, "Afternoon, Matsuzaki-san. It is been a while, I suppose. With that in note, wouldn't it be best if we just get over the greetings and go straight to the point?"

"Rude as ever, aren't you?" said Ayako-san back with annoy. "I would have thrown you out of this place since the time I had glimpse of your carriage if it was not for Mai's sake. Very well, let us get to the living room." She turned her back to him and started to lead toward to corridor. Bou-san threw me a gesture of wiping of sweat as I grinned back at him, before we all started following her lead. Once we got to the living room, and we were seated across each other like before, Ayako-san started the conversation. "So, what is it that you want to talk with us, Davis-sama?"

"Regarding to the engagement of Mai and I," Naru began. "Due to the absence of my father, I had to gather the town council and other royal officials to make it legal. And of course I had to invite Duke Hara as well in the meeting. It was supposed to be an open discussion between Duke Hara and me to make a settlement of the previous engagement plan, but it seems that none of the officials were happy with it, and so they were very opposed to it. Not that I didn't expect that."

"So you should have another way to persuade them, don't you?" Bou-san asked.

"Yes, I did. But Duke Hara is more difficult to be asked in cooperation than I had thought it would," answered Naru in an irritated voice. "Most probably that girl had talked to him earlier than I did." Now that Naru had mentioned her, I remembered about the incident with Hara-sama and just how fragile and hurt she had looked like when she knew about Naru's proposal. In that meeting with the council, Naru must had told Duke Hara about his proposal to me, despite of his own knowledge of what his daughter's true feeling was. I could understand why he was really hard to cooperate with.

"You see, we had thought that, as long as we still establish all the cooperation agreement with Duke Hara, along with other privileges that he would have acquired from the engagement, he would agree to cooperate and cancel it. And once Duke Hara had agreed on this, then the council would have nothing to object about. Especially because in truth, Duke Hara is a very compassionate person, we had thought that we would not face any difficulties for this," Yasuhara-san started explaining. "But in contrary, this compassionate personality of his has become the reason why he refused to cooperate. He said that he cannot just cut off the engagement while Hara-sama is still bearing a great feeling toward Davis-sama. We spent a couple of days just to persuade him to attend the meeting, and a couple lot more days to persuade both Duke Hara and the town council to reach into a conclusion."

"…Which is?" I asked, ignoring my fear to know the answer.

"As the wife of the Duke's son, and also as the future Duchess," said Naru suddenly. "It is in the upmost important for her to have a proper status in the society. It doesn't mean that she has to be a noble-born; she can be a merchant's daughter, a worker's daughter, or even a mere commoner. It doesn't matter. What matters is that she has to be able to comply with her job as a Duchess and become a role model for the people. She has to be able to present herself as a true noble, and bears all the responsibility as one so that she can gain trust from the royalties, the town council and the civilians."

I blinked at him. "I… don't think I'm following…"

Naru peered at me with an unreadable expression, and then he sighed. "My point here is that, after a long discussion with the council, they agreed to give you a chance to prove yourself as an… 'appropriate' candidate to be the future Duchess, before they can agree to our engagement. They want you to be able to act as a proper noble, and have all the knowledge needed to be a Duchess. If they approve of your competency then they will not oppose the plan any longer. They gave you three weeks to become a fully proper Duchess candidate."

"Eeeeeeeeh? Be a Duchess candidate? In three weeks?" I stood up in shock and slapped the table so hard that everyone was startled—_well, count out Naru and Koujo-san though_.

"I haven't finished speaking," Naru said as he glared at me icily. I gulped from his glare and sat down quietly. "I figured that it would be impossible for you to achieve that on your own"—I pouted at that—"so I have offered my assistance in educating you as a Duchess candidate, and to provide all of the necessary need for your education." He paused and looked at me in the eyes. "With that being said, it has been decided that you are going to live in my mansion for the next three weeks."

"WHAT?" This time, Ayako-san shouted along with me.

"That was fast," commented Bou-san in a somewhat amused manner.

"I can't believe this!" protested Ayako-san. "Are you saying that she'll live with you in your mansion even though you haven't even engaged with her? This is ridiculous! I won't allow that to happen!"

"I have to agree with Ayako," Bou-san said. Ayako-san glared at him in disapproval for calling her very casually but he didn't paid attention to her. "You can't just casually make a girl live in your mansion by herself while she isn't your relative nor your fiancée or even your maid. There might be bad rumors arise from that. Why can't Mai just study here?"

"Yes, Naru. Why can't I take the lesson here? I mean, moving into your mansion just like that… Did the council even approve to that?" I asked in disbelief.

"They didn't agree of course," Naru answered calmly, not bothering earlier shouts of protest. "But I convinced them to. Even Duke Hara agreed to it. I won't let them have their way on me twice." He moved his stare to Ayako-san and Bou-san. "While regarding to Mai's moving to my place, I think that it would be the best and fastest way for her to learn how to live as a noble, and thus learn to become a proper Duchess candidate faster. After all, if she is in my place, she can be more focus on her objective rather than if she did it here."

Bou-san shook his head doubtfully. "But… I still think that this is a bit too outrageous. What would happen if the public knew? It might turn out bad."

Naru raised an eyebrow. "It doesn't matter. After all, sooner or later they have to know about Mai."

"That's… true… but I still can't risk it…," whispered Ayako-san. Worries were in her eyes. "What about I go with her instead? Maybe with that we can avoid any bad rumor."

"Well, I don't really mind, but what will you do with this orphanage?" Naru asked coldly. "Are you just going to abandon it?"

Ayako-san was dumbstruck. "N-no… But…"

"No, Ayako-san. Naru is right." A sudden realization hit me. Ayako-san looked at me in surprise. Naru also shifted his look on me as I continued, "You can't just leave the orphanage. The children need you. And you too, Bou-san," I said as I tilted my head to look at Bou-san. He gave me a faint smile. "I need to go alone. For the sake of the orphanage. It can't survive without you. But it might also be a little difficult if I have to take the lessons here. I have to go there."

Ayako-san stared at me as she considered my reasoning. She looked at Naru as if she was judging him, then she looked back at me, then she sighed. "Fine. You can go. But I will visit every now and then, okay?"

I looked at Naru with pleading eyes. He threw me a frustration look before saying, "Fine."

I grinned. "Then it won't be a problem, Ayako-san!" She chuckled at that.

"Hey, hey, don't forget to invite me too, Mai!" said Bou-san, grinning widely. "And I bet the other children would be thrilled to come too!"

"Yes, go ahead; turn my mansion into gathering venue. I won't be mind at all," snapped Naru sarcastically. We laughed at that. Even Ayako-san managed to snort a laugh. Who knew the almighty Davis-sama can be pretty childish too? But as we laughed at him, Naru said again, "That if you can even pay for the renting fee."

We halted the laugh.

"Whoooaaa, that hit a nerve," commented Bou-san.

I frowned at Naru. "You're being frustrating, you know that?"

"It can't be helped since I have to deal with the bunch of you," he answered non-carelessly.

"You…!" Ayako-san started, but was interrupted by Yasuhara-san.

"Alright! Alright! Let's stop it right there," he said quickly. He raised his arms in front of his chest to ask Ayako-san to calm down. "We haven't finished the discussion." She glared viciously to Yasuhara-san but she said nothing. Yasuhara-san sighed in relief and fixed his glasses before started speaking. "So, getting back to our original topic, as one of the condition before they can agree to Mai-san and Davis-sama's engagement, Mai-san need to fulfill the criteria as the future Duchess in three weeks. However, it might be a little difficult to only judge her through a single test, therefore the council decided to make use of a supervisor who will judge in a day-to-day basis. This supervisor will be the one who decide whether you have fulfilled the criteria or not after the three weeks."

I nodded as a sign of understanding, but somehow it seemed that Yasuhara-san was becoming hesitated to continue. He fixed his glasses again while glancing at Naru nervously. Weirdly enough, Naru seemed a lot more annoyed than earlier, and he sounded full of grudge when he said, "It was part of the condition that Duke Hara put before agreeing to this conclusion. We argued back and forth about this for days, and I just couldn't put my hand to it. It was this or no deal at all."

The mention of Duke Hara had made me even more nervous than before. I felt a very _very_ bad feeling about this. "What is it about?" I asked. "What is so bad about a supervisor?"

"Oh, there's nothing bad about having a supervisor," said Yasuhara-san again. He smiled at me as if he was very amused of something, but not exactly a good thing. "What bad is about _who_ will be the supervisor."

I gulped. _Please don't, please don't, _I begged desperately in my mind. _My luck cannot be _that_ bad!_ "…Who is it?"

Yasuhara-san took a deep breath. He peered at Naru who seemed more annoyed than ever, before finally blurting out, "Hara-sama."

Ayako-san and Bou-san gasped in shock. I turned agape. _Oh, my dear God, this is going to be the longest three weeks I would ever have in my life_. With that prayer in mind, I screamed.

* * *

**In case anyone wondered, the last scream is some kind of a shock scream, not a scared scream, so please don't be confused. I wanted to make it like a cliff hanger but I'm not sure whether it's a good one. It feels a bit weird for me though... Anyway, I hope you like this chapter! I will be working on my next chapter as soon as I can... which is not a lot of promise, but at least I will still finish it... Don't forget to R&R!**


	8. Chapter 8: To Encounter One's Past

**Author's note: So here I am again, delivering the newest chapter for my story! I hope you guys still like it :) This one is a pretty short chapter, and it's only focusing in one thing, but I think that this part is hard to be put together with the other parts so I made it into a stand-alone chapter. I hope that it's not boring though. Anyway, please enjoy for now!**

**Disclaimer: Ghost Hunt Is Not Mine (spoken in a robotic manner)**

* * *

**Chapter 8: To Encounter One's Past**

"MAI! IS THAT TRUE?"

It was right before dinner when Rein came bursting in to the kitchen. His entrance was so sudden that the girls who were preparing dinner there screamed in surprise. I had nearly dropped the pan that I was holding if it wasn't for Marie who helped me steady it. I glared at Rein in disapproval as he stomped his way through the kitchen. "Rein! Don't go surprising people like that! What if the pan had fallen? We would have wasted a lot of food!"

Rein was stopped on his track. "Ah, I'm sorry… I didn't mean to… But, Mai! Rather than that…"—He grabbed my shoulders hard—"…is it true that you are moving to that brat's house?"

I frowned. "Who?" Then I remembered. "Ah, you mean Naru? Well, yes, it seems. So you heard?"

"It's not 'so you heard?' you fool!" he snapped. "Are you out of your mind? Why do you agree on doing this? Do you realize how dangerous it is?"

I frowned again. "Is it? I mean, I'm just going to take lessons in there. It's nothing dangerous, right?"

Rein looked like he had been slapped real hard on the face. He was glaring at me with some kind of a mixture of annoyance and disbelief. In a sudden, he cupped my face and pulled it close so that we became face-to-face. "You," he whispered very angrily. "You idiot little sister. Have you forgotten about our conversation at that time? Are you seriously asking for trouble?"

_Whoa, our faces are way too close!_ I blinked myself out of this distraction. "Wha-? Ah, yes… No… Of course not. Not…exactly…" I grinned guiltily as Rein sighed tiredly and let go of my face.

"Really… What should I do with you…," he murmured while rubbing his temple.

Still feeling guilty, I asked him, "But you are coming with me, right? You said that you're going to be my guard. So there should be no problem, right?"

Suddenly, Rein seemed like he was troubled. He scratched the side of his neck and he seemed hesitated. "Ah, yes… Well, about that… There is something…"

But before he could finish his sentence, Ayako-san cut into our conversation. "Rein! Mai! What are you two doing, chit-chatting leisurely here? Don't you have a job to be done? And Rein," Ayako glared at him in disapproval. "I would really appreciate it if you don't just barge in into the kitchen like that when we are preparing food. You should save your conversation later when you've finished all of your chores."

Rein sighed at that. "I'm sorry, Ayako-san. I will go back to my job." He glanced at me a little hesitantly. "I will talk to you later then, Mai." And with that, he dejectedly made his way out of the kitchen. Marie, Ayako-san and I were watching him in confuse.

"What's with him?" asked Ayako-san. "I understand that he might be worried about you, but still… He seemed a little too down." She turned her face to me. "Is something the matter?"

"Well, I think he was in the middle of telling me," I answered with a sigh. "I hope it's not something bad… He looks really troubled."

"Isn't he just really sad about you moving to Davis-sama's place this fast?" Marie asked. A sly smile was formed on her lips. "Maybe he's just regretting that he cannot accompany you immediately as you move tomorrow. After all, he won't be able to go until he passed the royal guards' exam."

I looked at her in surprise. "Royal guards' exam? There is an exam for that?"

"Of course there is, Mai-nee!" answered Marie with a scolding tone. "The noblesse, let alone the Duke family themselves, would never want to hire a non-certified guard! It's too risky for them! That is why all of the guards that work for them have to pass the royal guards examination first; to test whether they worth the responsibility and the trust of the noblesse or not."

"Now that you mention it, I do remember that there is that kind of an examination," said Ayako-san. "But it's held at least once in a couple months, right? It shouldn't be that long from now."

"Yes, but it's still not close enough to meet Mai-nee's moving date, right? So I guess that is what Rein-nii's being down about. After all, he really cares about Mai-nee." As she said this, she smirked at me in the slyest way possible.

I pouted at her. "Why are you wearing that kind of expression? Of course he cares about me. As I also care about him and all of us care about each other in here."

"Yes, yes. Whatever you say, Mai-nee!" Marie giggled happily as she skipping away to get some more plates for the food.

I was still pouting as I watched her went to the row of cabinets that were survive the fire. _Why does it seem that everyone is under impression that Rein and I have feelings for each other? It's not something like that at all!_ I grumbled to myself. _We're just really close good old friend! Nothing more!_ While I was in the middle of my own grumbling, Ayako-san gently patted my shoulder. "Well, whatever it is, make sure that you talk properly with him, okay, Mai?"

I looked at her and nodded. I had wanted to know what was wrong with him lately either. Especially with this sudden moving plan, I had to get it out of him before I moved or I might not be able to get the chance to anymore. Somehow, the way he had reacted when I mentioned about him coming along was really bothering me, and I was really worried about him. I didn't have a really good feeling about this, and I didn't want to regret it later. That was why, at the dinner, I had picked the seat right next to him. I was hoping that he would start telling me what the problem was. But he was so out of it that he had barely touched his food. He seemed like he was in his own world and didn't say anything at all even though everyone around us was being very excited about my moving. I didn't know why, but it seemed that they didn't really bother the fact that I was moving to prove my right as Naru's fiancée rather than I had already been acknowledged as one. It was as if they thought that I wouldn't possibly fail the test. "It's probably just a formality act," they said. I could only hope that what they were saying was true.

It was after we finished putting the dirty dishes back to the kitchen for the ones who were in charge to clean them that Rein finally came to me. He still looked as down as he was when he had walked out of the kitchen this afternoon, or even more so. He greeted me, "Hey, Mai. Can we talk a little? I… need to discuss something with you."

"Yes, sure," I answered, and I followed him out to the backyard. The backyard of our orphanage's mansion building was used to be a magnificent garden filled with different kinds of flowery. But as the things had turned bad ten years ago, we slowly remade it into a vegetable garden. We still kept some of the flower plants and made a garden corner of them, but it was still a very small size compared to how it was. _Well, as long as we still can enjoy its beauty it doesn't really matter how small it is_, I thought as Rein and I passed our way through the flower garden.

We made our way silently through the garden, before we stopped at one of the benches that were prepared for people who were in their turn of tending the garden to rest at. It was my favorite spot to sit on when I was loitering around the garden at night. We sat there, and I was waiting for Rein to begin speaking. He was silent for a while before he finally sighed. "Aaaah… I feel so lame…," he said as he combed his hair with his fingers. "I had planned on protecting you from the beginning to the end that I let you do this dangerous thing. But in the end… Why does this have to happen now?"

"What happened, Rein? What is wrong?" I asked carefully.

Rein looked up to me and his expression showed great anxiety. He sighed again and looked away. "I received a letter from my childhood friend from the town that I came from."

_A childhood friend?_ I looked at him in shock but I didn't say anything. He continued, "It's… Her name is Shitsuna. She's such a nice girl, and even though she's a commoner, she and her family had a really good relationship with my family. We used to play together when we were kids and we were best friends at that time."

Somehow, learning that Rein had another best friend other than me was making me feel a little lonely. We had been best friends since the time we met years ago, and it was hard to imagine that he would have had someone as close as me before that. After all, from what I had always heard from his stories, it seemed like he truly disliked his previous life as a noble. If he had had someone that dear to him, why would he hate his life there so much? "What happened between the two of you?" I asked. "Did you have a fight?"

"I wouldn't say that it was a fight. But… something happened, and she said that she couldn't trust me." When he said this, Rein's face was contorted in such a pain that I knew that her words must have had hurt him so much at that time. "I just heard about my parents' accident, and I was in the middle of a family conflict with all of my other noble relatives. I was so sick of it and I had hoped that she might be able to ease my sadness a little, but then she said that…" He made a grimace before he continued. "I was really hurt by that. And I was so angry. Angry with everything and everyone. Angry that I was left alone. Angry that I had to face those two-faced nobles, and then I finally lost my best friend. I was already at the point where I couldn't take it anymore so I spat on her, and I ran away. Ever since I left the town, I have never heard anything from her."

I nodded slowly. "But she suddenly sent you a letter…"

"Yes," Rein answered. "It's not just the fact that she shouldn't have known where I am right now, but in the envelope, there was only my name. No address of mine, or hers, just my name. It was as if she delivered it here by herself. I had already tried to look for her in the last couple of days, but I couldn't even get the shadow of her clothes."

"Is that why you have been disappearing lately? You were looking for her?" I asked in realization. If it was so, then it made sense why he was very insistent in not telling me.

He nodded. "I've searched for her all around the city, but it was no good. So I thought that the only thing I can do is doing what she has asked me to."

"Which…is?"

He gave out a long tired sigh. "She asked me to come back to my town."

I felt like I was just struck right at my heart. _Rein is… leaving?_ Somehow, my mind couldn't seem to be able to register this correctly. Rein, seeing my expression, immediately squeezed my shoulder gently. "Hey," he said softly. "It's not like I'm leaving forever. I'm just going to go clear up some things with her. I will go back here for sure, and I will help you with the matter with the Davis."

I blinked. "Oh…" I blinked again. "Oh, yes, of course… Yes, I mean, you should go. This is something very important to you, right? Don't worry about me. I still have Bou-san and Ayako-san if something happen. So don't worry, and take your time with her. You really should make up with her and be friends again."

He put on a faint smile. "Yes… I shall make things up with her. Thank you, Mai." He seemed relief for a second, but then he looked at me worriedly again. "But are you sure you are okay? I really don't want anything bad happen to you. And I really hate not being able to protect you as I should. I feel like I've betrayed you…"

I laughed at that. "What are you talking about? Of course not! I don't feel like that at all, and you should stop your habit of feeling the responsibility to protect everyone, you know! One day you might really get in trouble because of that!"

"I already am," he said with a small smirk. "With you, I would never escape trouble."

"That's rude!" I pouted at him. "I don't bring about troubles! It's you who like to involve in anything and everything!" He laughed merrily, and I watched him in relief. _Thank goodness he's cheered up again._ I spoke up again, "So with that, I really think that you should go. A broken tie is very difficult to mend. So if you get the chance to, don't ever let go that chance. Understand?"

Rein smiled at me. That was probably the gentlest smile he had ever showed to me. "Yes, Mai. I understand," he said in a playful tone. Then he said in a softer voice. "Thank you."

I smiled back, and I patted his back lightly. "Anytime, brother."

I knew that now that Rein had to go back to his town, I would have to face whatever it was danger that lied ahead by myself. To be honest, I felt really scared. Now that Rein wouldn't accompany me, I would be all alone in a whole new place, a whole new people; a whole new world. But I had to get my grip together. I couldn't always rely on Rein. He had his own life and problems, and he had decided to face it himself. I also had to face this myself. I had to learn to become stronger, so that I could protect everyone in the orphanage, everyone that I care about. If I didn't become stronger myself, then there would be no meaning of having a lot of people supporting me, and it would all become to waste. I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly as I walked toward my bedroom. I looked at my hands that had been trembling for quite a while, and put it close to my heart. I would make it through, and save the orphanage. And the first thing I needed to do was to pack my stuffs.

* * *

**Well, that was it! Again, how do you guys think? Please, leave me some reviews, okay! It will definitely make my day XD**

**Until next time then!**


	9. Chapter 9: The Encounter of a New Life

**Author's notes: Ok, so the first thing I want to clear up here is about the honorific for the nobles. I have cross-checked with the real titling of nobles and I found that Dukes should have been regarded with Duke and their respective owned region or their titles rather than their real names. While the sons and daughters of the Duke should have been regarded as Lord and Lady plus their first name instead of last name. But in this fic, since I'm too lazy to name the places, I will go with this rules: Dukes and Duchess are regarded as Duke and Duchess plus their last name, while the sons and daughters will be regarded as their last names plus "sama"(equals to Lord and Lady). Then when they are directly regarded by other people, for the Duke and Duchess will be regarded as Your Highness or His Highness and Her Highness, while for the sons and daughters will be regarded as Milord and Milady. Sorry for all the mistakes but I'm too lazy to fix everything from the beginning. Hahaha...**

**Disclaimer: GH iz not minez.. :P  
**

* * *

**Chapter 9: The Encounter of a New Life**

On the next day's morning, Naru's carriage arrived to pick me up. He was only accompanied by Koujo-san, who helped putting all of my stuffs onto the carriage by himself. It wasn't much—I didn't have that much to begin with—but I was still impressed with Koujo-san's strength. I wondered if Rein had to be that strong too if he was to be a royal guard. I wasn't quite sure how strong Rein was, but he was obviously staring at Koujo-san with an incredulous look. I just hoped that however strong Rein was, it would still be enough for him to pass the exam.

After finished securing all of the baggage, I finally had to say my good-byes to everyone in the orphanage. Everyone was gathering at the front yard, and they were all wishing me well and success with teary eyes. I just couldn't help myself but felt like crying too. All of my life, this would be the first time I had ever gone away from the orphanage for this long. Bou-san, being the joker he was, was giving me a crushing hug while whining out loud cries, saying stupid stuffs like, "Ah, Papa's losing a daughter! Ah, Papa has to bear the loneliness of letting go Papa's precious daughter!" and so on. Ayako-san, annoyed as she already was with my moving, beat him immediately with her infamous feather duster as soon as Bou-san's non-sense whining reached the point of "…let your Papa lock you up in a box so that no men could ever taint you!" Thanks to his idiotic act though, the atmosphere was becoming lighter and we could finally finish our parting with smiles.

As I was about to say my parting with Rein, I saw him talking with Naru near the front gate. I was afraid he might say spiteful things to Naru, but unexpectedly he was talking in a calm and composure manner. To see him like that made me think that Rein really was a noble-born. Especially when he was standing side by side with Naru; I felt like looking at a pair of elegant nobles who were talking about important business while I was just a mere commoner who was watching them from afar with awe. I felt a pang in my heart. Somehow that thought made me feel a bit lonely. While I was drowned in my own thoughts, Rein and Naru had noticed my arrival and Rein excused himself from Naru. Rein walked to me with a sad smile on his face.

"Mai…," he started, but then he stopped. He looked down to the ground as I was watching him, didn't know what to say either. He looked up at me again, still with the same sad smile, and said, "It's time."

I cracked up a small smile. "It's time."

Rein covered his face with his hands and groaned in frustration. "Aarrgh, let's get this over with!" he said and he looked at me again, with a brighter smile this time. "Come give this best friend of yours a parting hug."

I laughed. _Leave__ it __to __Rein __to __destroy __a __very __emotional __moment,_ I thought. Nevertheless, I hugged him. And he hugged me back tightly.

"Be careful," he whispered.

"Um."

"I mean it."

I chuckled. "Yes~"

"I'll come over soon."

"Um."

"Take care."

"You too."

"Good bye."

"Good bye."

Then we let go of each other. As soon as we let go, Rein sighed again. "I will be departing early morning tomorrow, so you won't be able to send me letter or anything for a while. But I promise you I will write you a letter once I arrived at my town." He grimaced as he mentioned the words. "Wish me luck."

"I will." I smiled at him reassuringly.

After Rein and I finished saying our parting, I get inside Naru's carriage, followed with Naru and Koujo-san. As the carriage started to move, I hauled myself out of the window again and waved good-byes to everyone for the last time. A sad smile formed on my lips as the figure of the orphanage becoming smaller and fading away. _Don__'__t__ worry.__ I __will__ be __fine_. I told myself reassuringly. A small and gentle wind blew around me along with the rustling of the trees, giving out a soft sad humming tone, and I went back inside the carriage.

* * *

It took us nearly an hour to reach Naru's mansion. It was right at the other side of the town, and it still took another couple of minutes into the forest that it could practically be said that the mansion was placed outside of the town. As the forest was getting thicker and thicker, it was suddenly cleared out and a bright vast clearance appeared before us. My eyes went wide. Though it was placed so far inside the forest, it still couldn't hide the magnificent of the mansion. Even our orphanage mansion in its glory time would still not win against Naru's.

The front yard was just so large it couldn't be said as a front yard anymore. It was more like a really very huge garden filled with all kind of beautiful flowers and plants, with beautiful pattern of pavements built all around it and a really grand fountain stood right in the middle of it. The mansion itself was not any less glorious than its front yard. The size was so huge that there would be at least a hundred rooms inside of it. When the figure of the mansion appeared onto me, I just couldn't take my eyes off of it. I took everything with my eyes and bored the pictures of it into my mind as if my life was depended on it.

As we reached the main door of the mansion and the carriage came into halt, I immediately reached for the door knob only to be stopped by Naru. I looked at him with a questioning look. "What's wrong?"

"Wait for the coachman to open the door for us. It's not appropriate for you to just jump off of the carriage on your own," Naru answered as he gestured me to sit back.

I raised an eyebrow. "Why not? I can get off on my own. It's not that big of a deal."

"It is a big of a deal," Naru said with a firm tone. "You have to remember that from now on you are a part of the nobility. We have our own rules, and you have to start learning it if you want to save your precious orphanage." He looked at me directly in the eyes. "So wait for the coachman to open the door for us, then Lin will get off first, and then me, and then I will have to help you get off of the carriage. Understand?"

I pouted at him but I nodded. He nodded in satisfaction and let go of my hand. When the coachman finally opened the door, Koujo-san quietly got off of the carriage, followed by Naru, and then he offered me his hand. I looked at his hand, and somehow I found it really embarrassing of how Naru was treating me like such a lady even though I was just a mere orphan girl. But it was just him following his 'rules' by doing that and I was supposed to learn those 'rules'. But then again, Naru was never such an obedient person. When he raised an eyebrow in questioning look, I finally took his hand and got off.

As we went into the mansion, I could only stand there in awe. While the front yard would have been simply astonishing, the inside of the mansion was even more grandiose than the outside. A slight peek and you could tell that everything in there was very expensive. Paintings, carpets, sculptures, silver ornaments; just named it. But the most incredible thing of all was the number of the servants that were greeting us in the main hall. There were probably around thirty or forty people dressing up as maids and butlers greeted us with a bow. I couldn't help hanging my jaw open. "What in the world...," I whispered in awe. _And __this__ is __just __a__ Duke__'__s __son__ house!_

Once the servants finished their greetings, Naru raised his voice. "Where is Luthena?"

"I am here, Milord," said a straw-colored hair maid in the left side. She quickly made his way to the front of Naru and bow. "What would you need of me, Milord?"

"I would like to appoint you as Mai's first hand maid," Naru said. "She is the girl that I have chosen as my bride, so I will need you to regard her as a noble and treat her as you would treat your own Lady. Do you understand that?"

The mention of me being Naru's chosen bride made me blush a little. And I had thought that the maid would surprise or startle a bit, but rather, she seemed to hold in a smile and answered smoothly, "Yes, Milord, I understand. I will obey your order."

"Good. Then show Mai her room, and bring some of the other servants to help you with her luggage," said Naru again. "Also manage some other maids to attend to her under your order, and then come report to me once you finish attending to her. I will be in my office." He was about to leave but he stopped for a moment. "Oh, and I would like some tea to be brought along with you." Then he was finally leaving with Koujo-san following on his trail. I looked in disbelief at him. He didn't even say goodbye or anything to me before leaving! How cold!

As I was eyeing Naru's disappearing figure, Luthena approached me. "Mai-sama, let me escort you to your bedroom." She bowed and led me to the stair. I followed her with some other servants behind me, helping me with my luggage. One of them also tried to helped me with the bag I was holding but I politely refused. I couldn't let them do all the works. Having some servants helping with my other luggage was already making me feel uncomfortable, let alone letting them do everything for me. I sighed. It would be a real hard work to get used to living as a noble.

When we reached my bedroom for the next three weeks, I couldn't help but feel amazed by it. The size was more or less the same with my bedroom in the orphanage, or maybe even bigger. The difference was, in the orphanage one bedroom was filled with at least ten or so bunk beds, but in this bedroom there was only this one huge comfy looking bed. The bed was decorated with canopy and curtains, and under it was a large beautiful carpet. The room was also decorated with various kind of expensive looking ornaments and there was a balcony outside of the glass doors that were supposed to be the windows. I stood there, feeling like fainting.

"This is your bedroom, Mai-sama," Luthena spoke. "I hope you find it to your liking. Davis-sama has specifically ordered the redecoration of the room, and it has also conveniently located near Milord's bedroom. It's just right in the end of the corridor." _Is __it__ me__ or __does __she__ sound__ amused?_ She continued, "We will unpack your belongings immediately so we can give you some time for rest. Until then, would you need some thing else, Milady?"

"Ah, you don't have to call me Milady or sort," I quickly said. "It's not like I'm a real noble or anything. And it seems like we're in the same age so you calling me with honorific feels a little bit weird. You can just call me Mai. All of my friends do."

Luthena looked at me in surprise. "Friend?"

"Uh, yes? I mean we're going to work together from now on so if you don't mind then I would like to become friends with you." I blushed a little. Now that I thought about it, my words felt somewhat embarrassing.

To my surprise, I found her chuckling. "Eh? Luthena?"

She giggled a little before answering. "Ah, pardon my rudeness, Mai-sama. I'm afraid that I have to decline your order about honorific. Davis-sama himself has strictly told me to regard you as my own Lady, therefore I cannot disregard you by not using it. But if you would really like it, then I would very gladly accept your offer of being your friend with all my respect."

"Oh? Ah, well, if you say so, then I can't do anything about it."

"I am very most grateful with your consideration," she said as she bowed. I clumsily replied the curtsy. As we talked, the other servants had finished unpacking my stuffs. I was pretty surprised with their efficient works.

Luthena did a quick check over everything before she went to talk to me again. "We've finished organizing your belongings, Mai-sama. You can find everything you need in this closet. And if you ever need me or the other servants you can call us through this bell. It's connected to the kitchen and we will come to attend to you immediately." I nodded in understanding. "Well then, please excuse us. I need to prepare the tea for Davis-sama before he grows impatient."

That was when an idea stroke my head. "Say, Luthena," I said. "Can you show me where the kitchen is?"

* * *

It took me sometime before I could finally find Naru's office. I knocked softly on the door.

"Come in." I heard him saying.

With all the courage I had, I turned the knob and came in. I saw Naru was sitting behind a big wooden desk while Koujo-san was standing right next to him and seemed like he was explaining something while holding a document in his hand. "...that is why I still can't find real evidence on their relationship..." said Koujo-san when he saw me. That expression on his face was unexpected. He looked like he just saw a ghost and froze over it. But in just a split second his face returned to that expressionless one and he swiftly closed the document in his hand while bowing his head to me. "Mai-sama," greeted him.

"Koujo-san," I greeted him back but my eyes were on the document that he had just closed. _What__ was __it?__ Why__ did__ he__ seem__ scared__ when__ he__ saw__ me?_ I thought wonderingly.

But it seemed that Koujo-san wasn't the only one who didn't like my sudden visit. Naru greeted me with a cold tone, sounded almost annoyed. "Mai. What are you doing here? Why are you holding a tea tray? Where is Luthena?"

Putting my suspicion to side, I put on my best smile. "I just thought that I wanted to thank you for everything you've done, especially that one time when you saved me from Hara-sama, so I made you some tea. I heard that you really like drinking tea, and the people in the orphanage say that my tea is really tasty so I thought I would like to give you some. Do you mind?"

"I do mind actually," he scrunched. "A lady should not go making tea in the kitchen like a commoner. That's the servants' duty."

I pouted. "Oh, come on! It's just the first day! And some tea wouldn't hurt anyone! And at least I know I'm bad enough to not trying to cook you something else other than tea so you don't need to worry!"

Naru lifted an eyebrow on my last statement but he didn't say anything. After some time debating with himself, he finally sighed. "Fine. Bring it here. It's not like I have ever taste any decent tea lately anyway."

I wasn't sure what he meant by that but I brought the tray to his desk anyway. I poured a cup and gave it to him. He silently took a sip. I waited for his response but he just kept drinking silently. I waited even until he finished the cup but he still didn't say anything. Hardly able to bear it anymore, I finally asked, "Well? What do you think?"

"It's edible."

I looked at him in disbelief. "That's it? 'It's edible', that's all you can say?"

"What are you expecting? 'Oh, it's really delicious, Mai. Thank you for doing this small favor of making me tea'? Is that what you want me to say?" he said as he poured another cup.

I stared at him as he took another sip to his cup. I shook my head and groaned. "Ugh, whatever. It's not like I expect any less from you."

After another minutes of silent, I spoke again. "Naru, when will Hara-sama arrive here?"

He scrunched again. "Tomorrow morning. She gave me a letter announcing her arrival. And so do your classes will begin tomorrow."

This time I was the one making a face. "What kind of classes do I have to take? Is Hara-sama going to attend every classes with me?" I asked. "That would be nightmare."

"I'm afraid that would be what it is," Naru said. "She will be watching your every movement so be prepare for it. I know what it feels like. I've been dealing with it for ten years straight." I gave him a sympathy grin. "It will be really hard, but if we play it right then we can win this."

I groaned. "How can you expect me to win her over? She's more likely to give me hell before failing me."

"First of course you have to take this classes very seriously. I, myself, will not let you to behave very unladylike if you are to be the future Duchess," Naru said. "So first you have to study very seriously and leave no gap for her to criticize."

"She'll criticize anyway!"

"Then you should give her the chance for other possibilities."

I looked at him, confused. "Possibilities? What possibilities?"

"Possibilities of what she might deem impossible," explained Naru. I blinked at him. He sighed. "You'll understand once you start dealing with her. But for now, you have to go back to your room and get some rest. Tomorrow your classes will start and it will be very hard for you since we don't have the time to get you adapted to it first. You will have five to six classes for manners, etiquette, general knowledge and arts everyday. It will take a lot of stamina so I expect you to take good care of yourself for the next three weeks. Understand?"

"Ugh... Yes..."

"Good. You can go now."

I sighed and started my way to the door when he called me again. "Yes, Naru?"

He shook the tea pot slightly. "I ran out of tea. Bring me another one before going back to your room."

I looked at the now empty pot and smiled in victory. _I__ win!_

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So there you are! Sorry if I can't make the scene of Naru and Mai better. I'm still working on it.. Huhuu.. So please give me your opinions on it! I'd really love to have some feedback and reviews :) And I really thank everyone that have been so very kindly to bother giving me reviews. Every each and one of those reviews are treasure for me :)) Until next time then!

P.S. I kind of thinking to re-edit and cut out some unnecessary stuffs in the earlier chapters, so if you have anything in mind about which part that you think is unnecessary, I will always welcome suggestions. Thanks! :)


	10. Chapter 10: 1st Encounters r Always Hard

**Author's note: Wow, finally this chapter is out.. I nearly give up in publishing a chapter in this holiday because my laptop just didn't want to work. But FINALLY after I whined to my father to fix it in a store for a couple of weeks, he finally went and get it fix for me. Yeey~ Anyway, please enjoy. I hope it turns out to be a good chapter :)**

****Disclaimer: GH is not mine, sadly..

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**Chapter 10: First Encounters are Always Hard**

On the next morning, I was dressed with such a beautiful gown that I had to eat my breakfast very slowly just to make sure that I wouldn't leave a stain on the dress. Naru was starting to get impatient with my slow eating when a servant came into the dining room and announced Hara-sama's arrival. I was so surprised that I accidentally dropped my bread, with jam and everything, onto my lap. I groaned.

Naru eyed me with a vicious look before ordering Luthena to get me changed and left the room with Koujo-san and the earlier servant. I was grumbling to Luthena about how my efforts had gone to waste, and how someone could intrude in the time for breakfast, and why would anyone wear such an expensive clothes just to eat breakfast, and that Naru shouldn't have given me a cold stare like that, all the way back and forth from my bedroom. Luthena just chuckled and responded in short answers from time to time.

When we finally got to the living room, I found Naru and Hara-sama were sitting on the sofa, while Koujo-san and John-san were standing next to their respective masters. There was also another person there; a woman with beautiful childish face and wavy light brown hair who looked like in her twenties. It was hard to tell though because of her childish face. While the atmosphere between Naru and Hara-sama was somewhat menacing, that other woman didn't seem to be affected at all and she had this light air around herself.

Just right when I came into the room, the three of them turned their heads to me and that young woman practically leaped from her seat to in front of me. I nearly jumped back in surprise but she hold my hands and chirped happily. "Mai! That must be you! Such a sweet young girl, I see! it's such a pleasure to meet you! Naru talked about you a lot, you know!"

"No, I didn't," snapped Naru.

I looked at him, and then the woman holding my hands right now. "Um, pardon me, but who you might be?"

"Oh, yes!" She laughed. "How rude of me! I'm sorry, I'm just too thrilled to finally meet you. Well, let me introduce myself. My name is Madoka Mori and I'm Naru's instructor in Language and Mannerism for quite a while now. And I'm going to be your instructor for the next three weeks."

This time, I actually jumped away from her. "You're my instructor?" I quickly gave her a curtsy. "Excuse me for not giving you a proper greeting. It is a very pleasure of mine to get acquainted with you. I might not be much, but please take care of me from now on."

"My, my," she said, amusement in her eyes. "I see no problem with your manner. You might be even better than Naru!" She laughed again.

I smiled. "It's only because Ayako-san has taught me well."

She raised an eyebrow. "Ayako-san?"

"Ah, she's one of the caretakers in the orphanage."

"Is that so?" She made a fade smile. "She sounded interesting. An orphanage caretaker who is able to teach proper manner, eh? Must be quite a woman."

"Well, she and her family used to be one of the high status themselves, so she knows quite well about it," I explained.

"'Used to be'? What happened to her family?"

"Well..."

I was just about to answer when Naru interrupted me by clearing his throat. "I think we're not here today to discuss about Matsuzaki-san's background past," he said as he threw an annoyed look toward us.

Mori-san, _or should I call her sensei?_, laughed again. "Ah, my bad, Naru. I shouldn't have taken her all for myself. Come on, Mai! Let's have a seat!"

She ushered me to the sofa and seated me right in front of Hara-sama while she sat beside me. When I sat down, Hara-sama threw me a cold glare but she didn't say anything. She just simply covered her mouth with her dress sleeves as if I was some kind of stink stain that she found distasteful. Not very much different with what she had in mind, I believed.

Once we were all seated, Naru spoke. "Now that everyone has known each other, let's just skip the introduction and go straight to the explanation. Simply to say, we are all here to overlook Mai's study to become a proper Duchess candidate; or in other words, my bride." Hara-sama's glare was becoming more intense here. I shifted further back in the sofa. "And in order to determine her eligibility as the candidate, Hara-san here is going to supervise not just all of the educational activities but also Mai's daily activities in the next three weeks. Therefore she will be staying here too. While Mori-san here will be the one in charge for Mai's Language and Mannerism class; your first class this morning."

I tried not to gulp as I nodded to him. He continued, "Basically, you will have five classes, 90 minutes each. One is Language and Mannerism class, the others are General Knowledges class, Art and Dance class, Home-making class, and the last one is Politic and Governance class. I have assigned different teacher for each class, they will come exactly at the appointed time, so refrain yourself from being late." I laughed nervously as a reply. He didn't seem to be impressed. "Hara-san will also come to each and every classes and she also has the right to give suggestions to the teachers if she deems needed. However though, every classes schedule and course plan, and also every changes to it, will have to be approved by myself first before it can be exerted. Am I clear?"

Mori-san and I nodded.

Hara-sama said, "Yes, Milord."

"If everyone is clear, then we can finish this meeting here," said Naru as he stood up. "One of my servant will lead you to your room, Hara-san. After you has settled down you can join the class in the north living room on second floor. I have also prepared some breakfast to be sent to your room so you can rest as you like. We will continue our breakfast in the mean time, and you are welcomed to join us too, Mori-san. After that, you can start your class with Mai."

"If I may, Milord," Hara-sama spoke suddenly. "I would like to join thee in the table. I have my responsibility as the supervisor, so I shall keep true to my duty. And attending meals together with..." She peered at me. "...Mai-san would be necessary. Therefore I ask for thy permission to be at thy morning meal."

"Not that I disagree, but aren't you tired from the trip? I believe it costs you no small amount of energy to travel all the way here," asked Naru.

"Milord, I have come to here for no other reason than to fulfil my duty. For that, even my own fatigue won't hinder me on doing so," answered Hara-sama as she smiled sweetly at him.

_It's an attack!_ I realized. I peered at Mori-san; she was smirking in please and whispered to me, "Watch, my dear." So I quietly looked back to the argument in front of me.

"I am in no mean to doubt you with your dutiful self. However though, I cannot let my guest to tire themselves out just to attend the meals. I would be a very bad host, then," Naru said again.

"Oh, my! No, Milord! Thou art no bad host. Instead, a very generous one, I must say. I am very grateful for thy concern over this humble self. That is also why I would like to repay thy kindness by doing my duty properly. Staying in my room and neglecting my job just because of some tiredness would be no excuse! Pray let me do as I should, for not I will forgive myself by not doing so!"

"Well, it is quite relieving to see how responsible and kind-hearted you are, but I couldn't let my guest be the one giving here, could I? It is my mansion after all, and I want to show you my generosity by giving you a proper resting time. Surely you would not refuse my generosity, would you?" Naru gave a faint smile, but the smile was so cold and intimidating that Hara-sama was taken aback.

She quickly looked down and mumbled quietly, "N-no, Milord, I would not dare."

"I'm glad you understand." Naru waved to one of the older maid in the room and said, "Rieko. Show Hara-san and John-san their rooms and prepare the breakfast for them. You will be the one in charge for their needs, but do remember that John-san is still her personal butler. Do not forget your place."

"I understand, Milord." The maid called Rieko-san bowed before she turned to Hara-sama and lead her and John-san outside the room. Hara-sama threw me another hateful look before following the maid lead.

After Hara-sama and John-san had left the room, Naru let out a soft sigh. He looked back at us and said, "Well, let's go back to the dining room now. We're losing a lot of time already."

I was about to say "Ok" when Mori-san hold my arm and smiled to Naru. "You go on ahead. We'll be coming shortly. I need to talk with Mai for a bit."

Naru raised an eyebrow. Mori-san just chuckled. "No need to worry. I just need to say something about our class. Now, go on, go on!" She gestured him to go away and he just sighed at her before going out of the room.

I watched him go before turning to Mori-san. "What was that all about?"

She just smiled. "Well, my dear Mai, that was your first lesson this morning. That's called the way of arguing. It's something you'll find quite often in the noblesse society. It was pretty one-sided though." She chuckled. "Sadly, that was the way Naru is right now. He's too good in it for his own good. He's so stubborn and doesn't like to lose, but what worse is that he always know how to win. That makes him a little bit too arrogant, I think. But now," she turned to me and grinned. "He has made a grief mistake of letting me be your language teacher! I'm going to teach you how to defeat him in an argument! You, my dear, is going to put a rein on that arrogant attitude of his!" She laughed. "Oh! I can't wait for it!"

I laughed nervously. "But, why would you ever want to do that? He's your student, right? Won't you feel proud when you find that he's doing a good job?"

"I did say that he's really good in argument and in getting what he wants, but I didn't say that he's doing a good job," said Mori-san. I looked at her, confused. She smiled. "Do you know about all the rumours surrounding him? About him being a selfish arrogant noble brat who always so full of himself and always make troubles?" I nodded. "Those rumours are not true. Well, not entirely. Sure, he is arrogant, and sometimes he can be selfish and full of himself, but he's not the kind of person who would look for troubles. Let alone making fights with other people. I mean, really, can you imagine him do things like gang fights?"

_Strangely, I can't._ I shook my head.

She smiled. "See? That's what I mean. I don't know where those rumours have started but whenever I asked him about it he just shrugged it off. I can see that he has nothing to do with any of that, but he also doesn't seem to try to defend himself. He may be too arrogant to care, I don't know. But I'm worried. If bad rumours keep spreading about him, his position as the next duke might be threatened. Even as his situation as it is, he's already in a bad position. If there are any more distrust towards him, well," she shook her head sadly. "I'm afraid that maybe even his life will be threatened too."

I looked at her in surprise. I remember at the time Naru came to propose me, he had mentioned that he didn't want to make his image any worse. I wondered if it was because of this. _So Naru care after all,_ I thought, a little relieved. But wouldn't that mean someone is trying to impair his reputation in public? Why would anyone do that? And why was he already in a bad position? "Why?" I asked. "Why is Naru already in a bad position? Did he do something? And based on your story, it seems that someone is targeting Naru. Why would anyone do that?"

Mori-san smiled again. "Oh, you have no idea how many people wish to harm him. He's the duke's son after all. People is coming to him for his wealth and power, but he is definitely not the cooperative type. About his condition, though..." Her expression turned a little sad. "Well, the fact that you're asking means that he hasn't told you yet, so I guess I can't say anything. If you wish to know, you have to ask him himself. He will tell you eventually, I think. But still, it's quite rare for him to trust anyone who doesn't know. I guess he does love you that much, doesn't he?"

I blushed furiously. "I-I-I don't know! I don't know either! I-I mean, he's such a mysterious person that I'm not sure what is going on his head! I-I..." I quieted down in shame. "I'm sorry..."

"Hahahaha... You're interesting!" She laughed merrily. "Don't worry. There's nothing for you to apologize for. I guess no one can truly understand what he really thinks inside. Even his own going-to-be bride." She winked. "Well, my point is, I want to at least lessen a bit of the things that people don't like about him. For instance, his arrogancy. His attitudes that make people feel inferior toward him could be the biggest reason why people believe those kind of rumours in the first place. If we can make him look inferior towards you; now, that is the way to make them fear him less. That's why, won't you cooperate with me?" She put on her best cute-begging expression.

"Uh, okay... I guess."

"Yes!" she shouted. "I know you're a good person, Mai! I know I can put my hope on you! Now that we're settled, let's work our hard together, okay? I'll make sure to turn you into a great noble who can even win against the Great Naru-sama! Be prepared, Mai!" She laughed again and danced her way to the dining room. I followed her behind, feeling rather unsure about my future studies.

_I hope I didn't just get myself another ticking bomb,_ I prayed to myself as I went back to finished my breakfast.

* * *

I massaged my neck as I made my way to my bedroom. I had just finished the dance class and I was about to change my clothes for dinner. Looking back at it, my first day was a pretty messed up one. After we finished our breakfast, we moved on to the first class, Language and Mannerism. Hara-sama joined us shortly after, still looking in a pretty bad mood. It had started well, I was able to do the basic mannerism with no problem and Mori-san was pretty happy about it. But it was only until she suggested to try out my ability in the so-called noble argument, and against Hara-sama nonetheless. We were doing fine at first, starting with a quite civilized debate. But after her argument with Naru in the earlier incident, Hara-sama seemed pretty determined not to let me win. We started to throw insults, getting to each other nerves. Then we started yelling, and when she finally get to the point where she called orphan children as society trash, I lost it and slapped her right on the face. And all hell broke loose. We screamed, and yelled, and hit, and kicked, and it took nearly six people just to separate us away.

She was still cursing me as the servants struggled to drag her out of the room. I wasn't anywhere better as I threw out insults so bad that if Ayako-san had had heard it she would put me in the basement scrubbing punishment after she washed my mouth thoroughly. Well, there was still Mori-san though. Once Hara-sama was out of the room, the servants released me and Mori-san started lecturing me about attacking people physically. She was telling me about how bad physical violence is, but somewhere along the line she didn't really seem to mind about the verbal abuse. Not that I complained though. A soap in your mouth was the last thing you would ever want to taste. After all of that cat-fight incident, Mori-san went back home murmuring about how dangerous young girls were in compare with guys, and kept massaging her temple until she went into the carriage.

My next class was General Knowledge. Surprisingly, the teacher was Yasuhara-san. From the moment I saw him smiling amusedly to me when I came to the class, I knew that he knew about the whole incident with Hara-sama. And though he didn't say a word about it, I couldn't help but feel embarrassed throughout the class. Thankfully Hara-sama had to excused herself for the afternoon because she said that she wasn't feeling well so I was saved from another hell of awkward situation. The rest of the afternoon was going well until Hara-sama once again joined me for Politic and Governance class.

The teacher for this class was the perfect image of a noble instructor. Her name was Katherine Mandale. She was strict, high-prided and elegant; all the quality you would ever find in a noble. I couldn't help but wonder how Mori-san could ever be pointed as the Mannerism instructor over her. Maybe Naru had figured that my Mannerism class would turn out into another living hell for me if Mandale-san were the teacher. Anyhow, it turned out that Mandale-san and Hara-sama clicked well, which was not a good news for me. In the class, I was supposed to memorise each and every noble in the country; including their histories, relationships between the noble families, and conflicts and cooperation established between them. The purpose was to learn how to make use of those relationships for the benefit of the town, or the family. I tried not to flinch when I heard that. In the end, this class seemed to be my least favourite subject, and it took me my whole will power not to snap again, especially when Hara-sama had the upper hand in the class.

My last class before dinner was Art and Dance. The teacher was a middle aged man with a rather quirky attitude named Gareth Von Duur. In the class, I was going to learn art and dance lesson in turn. Which meant I would be learning art for one class and then I would learn dance for the next class. And the first class was dance. Unfortunately, as I was attending the class, I came to learn that dancing is definitely not in my talent list. It might even be my worst talent aside from cooking. By the end of the class, Gary-san_-he told me to call him that_-had turned frenzy and would have stomped his way out of the class if his feet weren't hurt from all of the times I had stepped on him. Hara-sama didn't even bother to try to hide her pleased smile with her sleeves.

I let out a sigh. Even after dinner, I still have a Homemaking class, which I most definitely not looking forward to. Remembering just how bad my cooking skill was, I was pretty sure that this class would just be another disaster for me, nicely concluding the series of today's failures. I couldn't even imagine what Naru would do when he heard about today's classes. Not that I should care, but I just couldn't help but feeling discouraged. I could only hope that tomorrow is going to be better.

I let out another sigh as I made a turn to the corridor heading to my room. That was when I spotted him. A little child, maybe around nine or ten years old, running happily down the corridor, right to the direction where my bedroom was. He could be just a child of a servant here, coming along with his parent to work and had wanted to explore the mansion, but something about the child raised my curiosity. So I picked up my pace and followed him. I was following him as closely as possible without letting out too much noise but it was kind of hard because the little boy was half running. I wondered why there was no servant came scolding him for running in the hallway like that. And then I realized what was wrong. The boy didn't make any noise. Even if he was half running, his steps didn't make any noise at all. And his movement was so light and swift as if he didn't have any weight. He was there, a little boy happily running down the hall, moving as silent and as swift as the wind. I felt something stirring in my stomach.

As I was suspected, the boy was going in the direction of my room. We already reached the corridor where my room was, but he just ignored it and went straight to the end of the corridor. There was a big black door right at the end, leading to probably another bedroom chamber in the mansion. The little boy stopped in front of that door and swiftly pushed it open. Again, without any noise. He slipped in and left the door slightly open. Something telling me that whom ever that room belonged to, it was definitely not the little boy's room, so I decided to check in case there was something unwanted happening.

I stopped in front of the door and tried to peek in but I couldn't see anyone. Curiosity took over and I pushed the door wider. It creaked. I felt cold in my stomach but I ignored it and slipped in. The room was spacious and yet, it was nearly empty. There was only one regular sized bed near the window, a humble sized clothes cabinet right next to the bed, one armchair and one small coffee table in the middle of the room, while the rest of the room's wall was covered by bookshelves that were filled by hundreds of books. Rather than a bedroom with bookshelves, it looked a lot more like a library with an additional bed. But what made it really strange was the fact that everything in the room, except for the books, was all black. The bedspread, the quilt, the pillow, the armchair, the curtain, even the wood of the bookshelves and the lamp stands were all black. _Who would ever want to decorate their room this gloomy?_ I wondered as I took a look around the room.

There was not even a single trace of the earlier child but somehow I got the feeling that I already expected that much. _Who was that?_ What _was that?_ My mind raced to find answer, but the only possible answer was something that I could never believe it to be. _It couldn't be...ghost?_

"What are you doing here?"

A voice shocked me out of my thinking trance. I spun around and I felt like my heart had just dropped down to my stomach. Naru was standing on the door, looking quite displeased.

"Naru..." I breathed out, but Naru quickly cut in.

"I asked you, what are you doing here?"

"I-I just, I saw a little boy, came running to this room, and I thought I should check him out just in case," I explained.

Naru raised an eyebrow. "A little boy? Here in the mansion? I've never known there was any child in this place."

"Well, couldn't it possibly one of the servant child?" I asked.

Naru gave it a thought. "Could be, though I am not sure that anyone would dare to bring their children here to the mansion."

"Eh? Why wouldn't they?"

"I just don't want any hindrance for their jobs."

"... Oh..."

There was a moment of silent before Naru spoke again. "So? Where is this problematic child?"

"It's not that he's problematic...," I said under my breath. Naru just stared at me, waiting, so I sighed and said, "He's not here. He's gone."

"Gone?" I wasn't sure how to translate his tone, but it wasn't pleasant. "What do you mean he's gone? Where did he go?"

"I don't know. When I came inside, he's already gone."

There was another moment of silent, but this time it was different. I looked Naru in the eye, challenging him to question the truthfulness of my statement. He stared back at me for a while, and then he sighed. "Fine, I'll just check on this matter later. You should go prepare yourself for dinner. But when you finish, wait in your room. I will come to pick you up."

I couldn't believe he just said that. It seemed like he really couldn't trust me after all. "Fine, I get it. I will see you then."

I hurriedly went pass him and on to the door. I couldn't believe he would doubt me just because of something like that. Sure, I was wrong for coming into other rooms without his permission, but I had no bad intention and he still couldn't trust me. If he couldn't trust me, how could we ever going to be able to cooperate and work together?_ And here I am working hard to meet his expectation just for nothing._ Somehow his distrust made me feel crushed, and I could feel the tears were swelling up in my eyes. Not wanting Naru to notice the tears, I quickly went to the door and was about to go out when I saw him. The little boy. Standing right in front of the door, looking at me.

I froze. Thousand of questions ran through my head but none would come out. I didn't know how, but I just knew that whatever that little boy was, he wasn't human. I looked into his clear blue eyes and he looked into mine. Time felt like stopping, and I didn't know what to do. _Should I scream? Should I tell Naru? Should I try talking to the boy?_ As options ran through my head, the little boy raised his hand, and touched my forehead. The next thing I knew, everything became pitch black.

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**Cliffhanger! Hahahaha... Sorry about that. I just can't help it XD Hope you guys enjoyed it, and please review, all of your comments are very much appreciated. With love, rei2nadia.**


	11. 11:Like I Said,1 Encounters r Alwys Hard

Author's note: Finally bringing my story to the next level! Yeaaah! Haha... Sorry that it's so short, but I just can't find this chapter to be joined together with the next story part. It just feels perfect like this. So... yeah, I hope you'll find this as enjoyable as I do!

Disclaimer: GH's not mine! Stop making me say that!

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**Chapter 11: Like I Said, First Encounters are Always Hard**

When I opened my eyes, it was dark. I was afraid for a moment that I had been kidnapped again when I realized I was standing in front of the door where I had been standing. I also realized that it wasn't exactly dark because there was no light, but it was because my surrounding had become only the shades of black and white. It was like everything around me had lost its colors. But what shocked me the most was the figure of myself, laying unconscious right in front of me. I watched in disbelief as Naru, who just noticed that I had fallen, rushed to the side of my body and tried to wake me up. He was shouting something but I couldn't hear it. It was as if I was watching a far away dream, where the noises were like a soft faded whisper, but the image was as real as if I was really there.

My mind raced. _What happened? Why am I unconscious? How can I watch my own body as if... As if I am outside of it? Have I died? _I covered my mouth in fear as I watched my limp body remained unmoved no matter what method Naru tried to wake me. He started to shout to the empty corridor. Faintly I heard him calling out Koujo-san and Luthena's name. My legs were giving out and I slumped down to the floor. People were starting to gather there, either looked surprise or curious. I could only watch silently as Koujo-san rushed to Naru, checked my pulse and said something to him. Naru's expression was relaxed a little. He then gathered my body in his arms and carried me away from the scene. Koujo-san and Luthena followed him closely from behind.

I tried to stand and follow them too but I felt a tug on my lower arm. When I looked back, the little boy was standing there, smiling softly at me. "Don't worry. They will take care of you."

"I…" I gulped. "Am I dead?"

The little boy's eyes widened for a second, and then he chuckled. "No, no you're not." He smiled again. "I could never make someone die just like that. I just tried to talk to you, and then this is what happened. To be honest, I'm actually pretty surprised too. But it seems like no harm done to your body so I guess it should be fine."

"Oh…" I exhaled in relief. Then with the corner of my eyes, I peered at him. "So… Um, if I may, what are you exactly?"

The boy smiled playfully. "Haven't you figured it out yourself?" He spread his arms. "I'm a ghost."

I was a little surprised by how laid back he was about him being a ghost, but at least he didn't seem harmful. "You're a ghost? A real ghost?"

"Yes, I am."

"Wow… This is my first time ever seeing a ghost." I looked at him from head to toe. He had messy black hair with bright blue eyes. He was wearing ragged old clothes that looked pretty dirty with some black stains here and there, as if he had just come back from playing in the mud. He looked like a nine or ten years old child, with an innocent and playful look on his face, but somehow his eyes looked older than he seemed. All in all, other then his messy look, he didn't appear anything like a ghost. "But you don't look anything like what I'd imagined a ghost would be."

"Well, I guess I can take that as a compliment," replied him.

I giggled. "Well then, if you really are a ghost, are you haunting this place? Is that because you lived here?"

He shook his head. "As long as I lived, I had never been in this place. But yeah, I guess you can say that I'm haunting here. It's more like I'm following someone though."

"Someone?" I raised an eyebrow. "You're haunting someone? Why is that? Do you… have any unfinished business with that person?"

He laughed. "I do have unfinished business with him, but it's not something scary, if that's what you think."

I blushed. "Ah, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that."

"It's okay. I think that's reasonable for people to think of ghosts like that," he said. "But you don't have to worry. The sole reason I'm following him is because I want to protect him. It seems like I won't be able to rest in peace until I'm assured that he's no longer going to be in danger."

"In danger? Why is that? Is someone targeting him?" Then I remembered my conversation with Mori-san. I gasped. "Could it be, the person you are talking about is Naru?"

The boy gave a soft sad smile. My stomach fluttered. _Is Naru really in that much danger_? I found it really disturbing to know that the guy who looked so composed and powerful was actually threatened by something. It felt scary to think about what might be threatening him so. "But why do you want to protect him? What is he to you?" I asked.

"A very important person." He was looking down so I couldn't really see his face, but his voice sounded sad.

I didn't know what to say. It seemed like his past with Naru was something he wasn't comfortable to talk about. I felt guilty so I changed the subject. "Well, I'm not really sure about the situation yet, but it seems like Naru is in a potential danger and I don't want anything to happen to him either, so is there anything I can do to help?"

He looked up and smiled softly again. "You're such a nice person. Even though you haven't known him for long but you're really concerned about him." My cheek felt a little hotter. The boy chuckled. "It's fine really. I think for now, you're being there with him is enough. If I can ask for a favor, please be sincere to him, because he really need that."

I nodded. "I understand."

He seemed glad, as his smile grew wider. "It really is nice to have a chat companion. It's been quite a long time since I can talk with human. Thank heaven I found you, who can see ghosts like me."

"Now that you've mentioned it, how can I see you?" I asked. "No offense though. It's just that I have never been able to see ghost. Why can I see you and do something like… this?" I gestured to the black and white surrounding. I noticed that the shades had changed. It seemed like it was already nighttime. _Has it really been that long?_

The boy touched his chin in a thinking gesture. He looked at me as if he was examining me. "I'm not really sure either. I have only met one other person who can see ghost but it seems like she's used to it so we didn't really talk about it."

"There's someone like that in town?" I asked in surprise. "I've never heard of it!"

"Well, I guess ability to see ghost isn't something that can be shown off easily. In fact, it may be quite an inconvenience if other people know."

I looked down. "I guess so…" _I wonder if that means I'm a weird person?_ My mind wandered. _Being an orphan has already been inconvenient already, what will happen if people found out that I have this kind of weird ability?_ I sighed. I could only hope that it wouldn't bring about any more problems, especially to the orphanage. Remembering how my past had wounded Ayako-san's family made me felt so guilty. I could never let them getting more burdens because of me.

"I'm sorry." The boy's voice surprised me out of my thoughts. I looked at him in confuse. His eyes seemed concern. "I didn't mean it like that. I've never been able to see ghost before I died so I don't know how hard it could be for you. I'm sorry, it's insensitive of me."

"Ah…" I laughed nervously. "It's not like I know either. It's my first time remember? So I still have no experience or what so ever. So…" I smiled. "Don't worry about it."

He flashed me a smile before he looked back toward the corridor. "I guess you should go back soon or you won't be able to get any dinner. You haven't eaten, right?"

I scratched the back of my head, a bit embarrassed. "Yeah…"

He turned to me again, still smiling. "So… I guess I will see you again sometime?"

I smiled back. "Yeah, I'd love that. And maybe you could show me more about this ghostly world of yours!"

He chuckled. "I will. And if I had the chance to meet with that girl in town again, I'll try asking about your condition. Maybe she has a clue and can help you."

I smiled, and nodded to him. "Thank you."

"It's my pleasure," he answered. "Ah, and if you don't mind, could you keep it a secret about me to Naru? I don't want to freak him out, you see."

"I understand, I'll keep quiet." I put my index finger in front of my lips and winked playfully. He laughed.

"I'll trust you for that, then." He smiled softly as my surrounding becoming more blurry and faded away.

I watched as his image going further away when I remembered something. "Hey! We haven't introduced ourselves! My name is Mai! And you are?"

He gave me his gentlest smile, and answered. "I'm Gene. Eugene." And with that answer, his image and the ghostly world completely faded out.

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Damn! It is short! But I'm really not sure whether I should have made it longer or not.. After all, the time flow in the ghost sphere (dream sphere, whatever term you want to use to call it) is different with the real world so if it's too long then it will be too late at night when Mai wake up. Oh well. Anyway, please leave some review! It will so brighten up my day! Thanks a lot, my dear readers XD


	12. Chapter 12: Encountering a New Light

**Author's note: Yes, I'm back! Haha.. Sorry for the hiatus. Everything just has been so crazy the last few months, and so will it be the next few months. So unfortunately, I might have to say that I can't promise you how much longer I can post a new chapter after this. I just really have to focus on my future plan right now. But I promise you I will post a new chapter as soon as I can. Hopefully you guys are still following the story... Review if you do! I'll give you some electronic cookies! :D**

**Disclaimer: GH is not mine... **

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**Chapter 12: Encountering a New Light**

I felt somewhat drained as I came to. Not that I was hurting or anything, but I just couldn't feel any energy in my body. I opened my eyes tentatively and I could see a shadow of a face hovering above my head. I blinked my eyes into focus and the image of Luthena's face was becoming clearer.

She squealed in delight at my wake. "Mai-sama! Oh, thank heaven you're awake! We were so worried! Are you feeling alright?"

I grunted a little as I shifted my body to examine my surroundings. I was in my room, laying on my bed that was in the middle of the room, with Luthena standing right beside it looking over me. It was already night and the moon was high in the sky, its light seeped through the huge balcony doors and lit up the candle-lit room. It seemed like I passed out for quite some time. There was no one else in there beside the both of us. I turned my attention back to Luthena who was still looking at me with an expectant look.

"Yes, I'm fine, Luthena. Just feeling a little tired…" I managed to whisper the words. _How do I feel so tired? I feel like all of the energy in my body is drained._

Luthena sighed in relief. "Thank goodness, it really is just a fatigue. I have prepared some food for you. It should help regaining your energy. I'll go fetch it from the kitchen. You should rest some more now, Mai-sama."

I nodded lightly, couldn't bring any power to resist or even reply. I lay back to the bed as Luthena made her way out of the room. Just as I closed my eyes for a rest, the door was knocked. I frowned. _Did she forget something?_ Pulling out every bit of the power I had left, I said, "Come in."

The door swung open, revealing Naru and Koujo-san behind it. That startled me. I hadn't in the least expected them to be the one knocking on my door this time at night. I tried to sit or show some sort of a sign as a greeting but my body failed me. So instead, I breathed out, "Naru…"

He stepped into the room, dismissing Koujo-san with a nod as he did. Koujo-san gave us a last bow before retreating outside, closing the door behind him. I watched as Naru walked toward me, stopping right at the side of my bed. He asked, "How are you feeling?"

"Fine. Just somehow feel like I'm out of energy," I said.

He nodded. "I suppose it is a tiring day for you. I have cancelled your evening class so you can rest as you like. But tomorrow's classes will begin as scheduled."

I nodded. "Thank you."

There was a silent fell between us. It was a bit awkward, what with had happened in the black door room earlier. I had entered the room without permission because I saw Gene went in and Naru had found me there alone. He was displeased and I was irritated to find that he still couldn't trust me so I acted harshly to him before I went out to the door only to find Gene there and fainted at his touch. Later on I found out that Gene was a ghost somehow connected to Naru and was lingering behind to make sure that Naru was away from harm. And I also found that unknowingly to me, I had some sort of ability to see and communicate with ghosts, and even go to this sort of ghost world or dimension by leaving my body behind. My head was starting to ache. _How should I ever explain this to him? _I wondered. I guessed I should start with an apology.

"I'm sorry."

I was startled as the voice was not mine but instead, Naru's. I looked at him, perplexed. "What?" I asked. _Naru is apologizing to me? I must be dreaming._

Naru was looking a bit unsure, but he continued. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize how much of this whole thing has put you in strain, with the moving and the classes and the Duchess Candidate test. But I keep on pushing you nonetheless to the point of you fainting. I'm sorry."

It took me a minute to process the whole thing. Naru thought that I had fainted because of all the fatigue that I got from the recent events. Sure the sudden moving was tiring, and the classes was stressing, and the whole my becoming Naru's wife and the possible future Duchess, and the Duchess candidate eligibility test were making me anxious and restless, not to mention the thing about my past; but it was not enough reasons for me to fall. Not with what I had had to go through every day with my life in the orphanage; the anxiety of not being able to maintain the orphanage, the unpaid debt, the increasing difficulties in getting money and food for the children—this was not quite a challenge really. At least now that I knew the orphanage was taken care of, I could relax and face those other problems more positively. But Naru didn't know that, and he was feeling guilty for putting up so much pressure on me that he thought I had fainted from all of that. While the actual truth was because a ghost touched me; a ghost who was now haunting him to keep him safe. Now it was even harder to explain things to him.

My eyes wandered to observe his face. His usually stoic and full with confidence face was now looked hesitant and unsure. As if he wasn't comfortable with what he was doing. As if he didn't know whether he was doing the right thing or not. As if he was the teenager that he really was instead of the mature and powerful son of the Duke. It partly made me want to laugh partly disbelieved that he could actually make that kind of face, but it mostly made me feel sympathetic towards him as I realized how hard it had been for him too with his life that he wasn't able to act his own age in front of others. So I decided to give him the mercy from my actual unearthly experience and said, "There's no need for you to apologize. This is at my risk after all, when I have accepted your offer. So if I fainted because of this, it means that I should do better next time. Right?" I offered him a smile.

Naru gave me a judging look, as if he was trying to decide whether to agree with me or not, but then he sighed. "If you say so," he said. "Just… don't push yourself too much."

I smiled wider, feeling somewhat happy with his concern, and replied, "Yes, of course." After thinking about it for a second, I added, "And I'm sorry too. About the incident earlier in the other room. I didn't mean badly when I went into the room. I just didn't want anything bad happening by letting the little boy went there. And I know you have every right to be suspicious of me, what with you found no one was there beside me, but I just want you to know that I have told you the truth, and that was what I saw there, so I'm just hoping that you could at least trust me in this."

Naru didn't say anything as he was thinking through what I had said. His face has returned back to its expressionless state so I couldn't quite judge what he was thinking. I waited anxiously until he voiced out a question, "Do you know whose room is that room?"

I frowned. _Why would Naru ask that to me? How should I know whose room is it?_ I answered nonetheless. "No. No, I don't. Why?"

He sighed. "That's my room, so I'd really like you to not wander in to it as you like. That is why I was a little upset when I found you there today. Nothing else to it."

I felt a blush crept in to my cheeks in embarrassment. What an embarrassing thing to do, accusing him like that while instead I was the one who made the mistake and distrusting him! I felt a sudden need to crawl into a hole deep in the ground to get away from his steady gaze and just wailing over my stupidity. But unfortunately no such hole existed in my room nor did I have any energy left to crawl out of my bed so I pulled my quilt up to my eyes and whispered another apology. I heard him chuckled.

I found myself peered at him in amaze, as he surprised me for the second time that night with his reaction, and felt something fluttered in my stomach as he tried to contain himself from laughing. Another blush added to my face, though this time I wasn't quite sure if it was from embarrassment or not. His smile though, I noticed, reminded me of someone.

Naru stopped his chuckle, and still with an amuse smile on his lips, he gently patted my head. "Get a good rest," he said. It was such a short words, but I could feel the kindness that overflowing in it. I smiled back at him before I knew it.

He turned back and went out of the room after he threw me a last approving look. At the same time, Luthena who had arrived with a tray of food was a bit taken aback when she noticed the smile on Naru's face but didn't forget to give a bow as he passed her by the door. When the door closed though, she looked at me as if she had just seen a dragon passed by.

"I have never seen the young lord smile like that for like, years perhaps," Luthena said as she set down the tray on the drawer next to my bed. She smiled excitedly at me. "What happened?"

I couldn't seem to be able to stop myself from smiling either, despite of how lack of power I had been. "I'm not quite sure myself," I admitted. "Perhaps he finds my stupidity and embarrassment as entertaining."

Luthena looked a little confuse at this, but she kept on smiling nonetheless. "Well, whatever the reason was, I'm sure it's thanks to Mai-sama that Davis-sama is becoming more relax and able to smile like that. And even perhaps becoming more like he was before."

The last statement of hers made me frowned a little. "Like he was before? What do you mean by that?"

"Well," she said as she started to prepare a small table for my meal. "Years ago, perhaps when Davis-sama was still an 8 or 9 years old child, he was a different person than he is now. He has never been a very active or cheerful boy but he was kind and gentle to everyone. I was around 6 years old, I think, when I first came here and got to know the young lord. He was really nice to me and all the other servants, and we all love him very much." Luthena paused here and let out a sigh, a faraway look in her eyes. "But then he changed."

"What happened?" I asked in a whisper.

"There was a fight," answered her with a shake on her head, as if she didn't really want to remember it. "A huge fight between the Duke and the Duchess, and apparently it also involved the young lord. I wasn't quite sure what the problem was but Davis-sama was punished quite severely after that fight. It wasn't physical, but he was sent to confinement for a long time. And after that, he just changed. He no longer talked to a lot of people, or laughed or smile, he no longer showed much of an expression even. He became absorbed with his study and always put his duties as his first priority. It was as if he turned into an adult in just those few days and he lost whatever resemblance of a child he used to be. It was such an unfortunate thing really."

I was silent. I didn't know what to say. I wouldn't have had expected that sort of a past from Naru. He was just always so sure, so confident, so powerful that I even had had thought that he bore no doubt in himself. But after my conversation with him tonight, and the past that Luthena told me, I was not so sure anymore. He might be a Duke's son, and he might be arrogant and cold to people, but maybe he was more than just that. Maybe he really was a gentle person who couldn't express himself because of what happened when he was a child. But what could be so problematic, so horrible that it would make the Duke and Duchess fight, and punished Naru to the point that he changed himself?

I eyed Luthena who was already back to her job in preparing my dinner. She had put a bowl of warm soup on the small table in front of me. Chicken, from the smell of it. There was also a plate of salad on the tray she placed on the top of the drawer, and she was neatly arranging two small rolls onto a platter before putting the platter too on the small table. The smell was so good and inviting that my stomach was aching for it, but I put my hunger aside and asked her the question that had been bugging me all along. "What was the cause of the fight?"

Luthena paused a second from my sudden question before answering, "I don't know… I don't think there's anyone who knows… Except maybe some of the personal servants who were there when the fight happened. But they are being very secretive about it and would never say a word no matter how curious the other servants are. Personal servants are, after all, the most loyal servants of the Duke and his family. Even if they are tortured for it, I doubt they will ever utter a single word."

"Is that also include Koujo-san?" I asked. "The personal servants, I mean. Is Koujo-san also one of them?"

"Yes, he is. Though I'm not quite sure if he was one of the witness of the fight. But he is part of the personal servants since as long as I can remember." Luthena said. "I think his family has been serving for the Duke's family from generation to generation. Maybe that's why he was assigned as the young lord's personal butler in such young age."

I nodded in understanding as I pondered about it. So the only possibility to know more about that fight was by either asking Naru directly, or Koujo-san, or I would have to look for the other personal servants of the Duke. None of the options was very promising to get an information out of from, but I had a feeling that I needed to know more about the fight, and especially the reason behind it. It could hold some important information that I needed. Maybe I should try asking the other servants too about it. Maybe some of them would know more about the matter.

But my train of thoughts was interrupted by the smell of the meal that Luthena had finished arranging on the table. She helped me sitting up on my bed, supporting my back with a couple more pillows. I looked at the foods before me, still felt quite disbelieved with the luxury of even a simple meal like this. My mind wandered voluntarily back to the orphanage, where the kitchen was still not fixed yet. _Is everyone alright there?_ I wondered. _Do they still have their meals properly?_ They should have, because Naru had promised me that he'd take care of them. But I still couldn't stop worrying about them. It just felt wrong being in a big quiet mansion like this without the sound of the children's laughing and fighting. I missed them so terribly, and I would do anything just to get back there and spend my days peacefully with them. But I had to stay strong. I had to stay here and finished what I had started. For their sake, and for my sake too. I let out a soft sigh before I started eating. _Hopefully, tomorrow would be better than this…, _I prayed silently.

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**So, did you enjoy it? Is there anyone who just might have a clue of what's going on? Review for your comments or ideas then! Thanks again!**


	13. Chapter 13: The Night Encounter

**Author's Note: I'm baaaack! With another short chapter.. Sorry about that.. There isn't much going on in this chapter, but that is because I want to focus on building Mai and Naru's relationship, and that is a total hardwork. It's just so hard to make those deep moments with them both! Maybe that's why I am such an amateur writer... Hiks. Anyway, please enjoy the story!**

**Disclaimer: If GH is mine, it wouldn't be as awesome as it was ;(**

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**Chapter 13: The Night Encounter**

The next day passed by remarkably peaceful. Although Hara-sama wouldn't get off my back about the previous night incident, saying how weak and irresponsible I was to let fatigue took its toll on me and neglecting my duty to attend the evening class and what not, but we were able to get through the day without clawing each other's eyes out. It was quite an achievement really, remembering just how eager we were in the previous day. But still, it didn't mean that we stopped the arguments.

In the Language and Mannerism class we were arguing about how to properly put my hands on the table in an afternoon tea event when I wasn't eating or drinking. In the Political and Governance class we were arguing about the engagement date of the second prince who was in sort of an on-off relationship with his fiancée. In the Art and Dance class we were arguing about how dark the red color of the apple should be. In the Homemaking class, she even argued that I had added a two tea spoons full of salt instead of the instructed one and a half tea spoons. For the love of God, she truly was living to her goal of making my life here a living nightmare.

Fortunately, none of the fights escalated any further than that. Maybe it was the lack of energy I was feeling or the superiority Hara-sama felt from my exhaustion and particularly miserable failure in the Homemaking class, but none of us were willing to make an all-out war. And so it's safe to say that I went through the second day rather successfully.

Or so I thought mid-through the day, until Naru made an announcement at dinner.

"We are having a ball this Saturday," he said.

Everyone stopped eating. And by everyone I meant Hara-sama and I. We were the only ones in the mansion other than Naru who was allowed to eat in the dining room. You could imagine just how joyful that dinner was.

I frowned in confuse at Naru while a smug smile crept its way on to Hara-sama's lips. This couldn't be good. "What ball?" I asked.

"A debut ball," he answered. "For you."

"Debut?" My stomach stirred. I didn't like the sound of it. "What do you mean by that?"

"It is exactly what it means," Hara-sama answered with more enthusiasm than for my liking. "A debut ball is where thou art first introduced to the noble society. It is a very crucial event at which thy statutory in the society is judged. A small mistake and thou shalt bear the shame till the rest of thy life." She smiled and waved off her hand. "No pressure though."

I looked disbelievingly at her, not quite sure because the revelation about the ball or the fact that she was practically threatening me. I turned to Naru, shocked. "Why would you make something like that for me? Not to mention that you are holding it this weekend! I have barely been here a week! I would never be able to go to something as big as a debut ball without embarrassing myself! I can't even dance without stepping on my instructor's feet at least ten times!"

Naru sighed at that and said, "I know that, but the nobles and the officials are anxious to meet you. And I think it would be a great chance to show them your appeal as a commoner as well as the progress of your study. And you don't have to really worry about it because it isn't your official debut ball. Just some sort of a mini version of it. Only town nobles and officials will be invited; the people who have concerns regarding our engagement. It's for the sake of your Duchess Candidate appropriation test."

"But, all the officials will be there, right? Then what's the difference with the official debut ball? I will still have to act like a proper noble in this ball!"

"Oh, just how poor of this lowly commoner to not know anything," Hara-sama sighed. "It is very much different than the actual debut ball. In debut ball, it will not be only noblesse who attend, but most of the civilians too. All of the high statutory in town will come, even the merchants and the scholars. If thy status is important enough, even the royalties might come to attend the ball. Therefore the level of pressure is very different. A small ball with only town officials attending is just something as big as a business dinner."

_But isn't that very crucial too?_ I would like to ask but chose otherwise. I looked at Naru. "So what should I do for this ball?"

"Basically you just have to show how much you've learned from your studies," he answered. "Show how much you are able to perform your duty as a noble and more specifically as the Duchess. Though it is just the first week of your lessons, and the other nobles might not expect much from you, but I wish you could perform as well as possible. It could also be a good practice opportunity before the actual debut ball after all."

I wasn't really sure about how well I could perform—I had no confident at all, in fact—but I understood that this could be a chance to impress the nobles as well as the town officials, and therefore gaining their favor. _If only I could do better than what they were expecting of me._ I shut myself out of that depressing thought and focused back on Naru. "I understand, I'll do it," I said.

After that depressing dinner, and a more depressing class of Homemaking, I dragged myself up to the library in the center of the mansion to start working on my assignments for tomorrow. I had two essays to be submitted in class; one for the General Knowledge, an essay about the legend of the land, and one for the Political and Governance, an essay about the noble families that had long-live relationship with the Davis family. Luckily the Davis kept quite a well-detailed documents on most of its past contracts and political cooperation so I was able to finish that one up quickly. But the one with the legend was more difficult as I couldn't find a very reliable source. I found quite a lot of literatures that talked about it, but most of them had their own version of the story. I, myself had heard some stories about the legend but it was just so varied and sometimes ridiculous that I hadn't even given it a bother. I didn't even understand why Yasuhara-san would give this topic as an assignment. I didn't see why it would be important for my studies. It was, after all, just a legend. But he was the instructor and I was the student so I guessed there was no meaning in arguing about it.

As I was struggling in reading the different stories for the umpteenth times, I didn't realize that Naru had joined me in the room. He nearly made me spill the ink in surprise when he suddenly asked, "Essay about the fairy legend?"

I shot up. "Naru! Don't surprise me like that! What if I spilled the ink on the books?"

He didn't say anything. Calmly, he took one of the books on the table and briefly scanned through the open page. "I hate to admit it, but I also had difficulties in finishing this essay before."

"Really?" I asked, interested. "How come?"

"Well, as you can see, there are so many versions of it that you just can't tell which are the right ones and which are not," he said. "So I ended up analyzing why the distortion of the story could have happened instead of talking about the legend itself. My instructor was quite impressed by it, but nevertheless I was made to revise it for a couple of times before she thought that it was acceptable."

I snorted in please. "So even your educational record isn't that perfect either, huh?"

Naru just shrugged. "I was only nine after all," he said. "I guess it really is hard for a child," he added with a smirk.

I grumbled in a low voice. _He just can't stop getting on my nerves,_ I thought begrudgingly. "So," I asked, changing the topic. "What are you doing here?"

He paused for a moment. "Nothing really. I was just browsing around to look for a good night read."

"Really?" I raised an eyebrow. "I thought you, for sure, have read all of the books in the mansion."

"I did," he said. "A couple of times actually. That's why I can't really find something to my interest. Then I found you dawdling around in here."

"Ha!" I exclaimed gleefully. "So you are saying that I interest you?" I said as I peered at him in the most seductive way I knew.

Naru just snorted and smirked at me condescendingly. I laughed bitterly at his response. _Yes, of course I don't,_ I said to myself. I sighed and scratched the back of my head. "Well, if you are so free and bored, why don't you help me in my assignment? My success is your benefit too after all."

"Not a chance," replied him immediately. "If you keep on letting yourself be spoiled like that, you will never get better from the level that you are now."

"Aaah, is that so? Then why don't you stop bothering me already and let me _get better_ by myself?" I asked, a little irritated.

He didn't say anything in reply. Instead, he was staring at me as if he was, once again, judging me. I looked up to him defensively. "What?"

"I have always wondered," Naru asked slowly. That little bit of incertitude that I saw in his face the previous night was there again. "Why would you go this far?"

"Huh?"

"For the orphanage. Why would you go this far for them?" he repeated. "Although I knew that you'd probably accept my proposal, but I could never really understand why." He stared into my eyes, as if he was looking for something. What, I didn't know. "Why?"

I pondered at his question for a while. Why? Why would I go so far for the people in the orphanage? The answer was easy, really. "Because they are my family. They are all I have left. They are the most important thing in my life, and I will do anything for them. To protect them, to make sure of their security."

Naru seemed to be deep in thought in hearing my answer. His face wasn't betraying any of his thoughts so I could only wait for his reaction. _But why is Naru asking about this thing now? Why would Naru want to know about it?_ I found it strange that he had only asked me that question now. No, I found it strange that Naru would ask something like that at all. It wasn't like it was something that he would bother about.

"How you could think of them as a family?" Naru said suddenly, pulling me out of my own thoughts. "When none of you are related by blood?"

I looked at him in surprise. I didn't know why Naru was asking those questions, but I knew that the only thing I could do for him was to answer as honestly as possible. So I said, "I have never thought that blood is a very important thing in a family. I, after all, was disowned by my own birth parents. But living in the orphanage has made me come to think that what most important is the understanding between the members of the family. We, as children who don't have any parents that take care of us, we understand each other's feelings. It's not like we understand everything, but at the very least, we understand how it feels to be in each other's shoes, being alone in the world without any real connection with anyone else, without any clear understanding of who we actually are; we understand each other's pain and sorrow. I think that is why we kind of have a bond with each other. Through that understanding, we are able to see each other as a family, as people who share the same fate and experience, and maybe even the same dreams. So even if the people in the orphanage don't share any relation in blood, it doesn't mean that we can't be a family. In fact, I think that everyone is thinking about each other as important family members."

"But isn't that just your egoistical way of thinking?" argued Naru.

"Maybe. Maybe it was just me," I said. "Maybe it really is just my egoistical thinking. But I don't think that it matters. Because I care about them, and I think of them as important, and that is all that matters, isn't it?"

He didn't say anything. He was just sitting there, looking at me with an expressionless face. I also didn't dare to say anything. I might not know the reason why he was asking these questions, but I had a feeling that it was something important to him, so I just let him to take his own pace. If he was going to tell me, he would tell me. If he didn't, then I wouldn't inquire about it.

A few more minutes passed before he calmly stood up from his chair. "It's getting late," he said as I was looking up at him, wondering what was actually going on in his mind. "You better finish up your essay soon or you are going to be too tired tomorrow. There is this book called 'The Tale-tell of Gjume' where I think there are information much more relevant to the legend than those books you've picked. You should look at it."

I looked back down to the table. "Oh… Thanks…"

I heard Naru's footsteps getting further from me, away to the range of the bookshelves, before it suddenly stopped. I looked up, wondering what had made him stop, but I could only see his back on me. He didn't look back nor he passed a glance to me as he said, "You know, I really admire your naivety, but you won't be able to go through life by just that. Sometimes, you just have to taint your hands."

And with that, he continued to walk away.

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**Um, is that a bit too depressing? I don't know if I've already depicted the things that I want as how I want it to.. So please leave your comments and thoughts about it. I will very much appreciate it! ^^**

**Btw, do you guys know that the second season of GH manga is already started? I've read the first chapter and I really can't wait to read the next one! I'm so happy that they decided to make the manga of the second season! Because people are saying that the real novelist of GH has died before he/she finish the story, I do think that Mai and Naru's romance actually still has a hope in the actual story XD So excited for the new season! XDD**


	14. Chapter 14: Another Crazy Encounter?

**Author's Note: Finally I can upload something! God, it was hard... Anyway, hope you'll like this chapter. This is one of the chapters that I've always imagined ever since the beginning of this story. Hopefully you'll like it as much as I do :)**

**Disclaimer: Other than the story plots, Rein and some other minor characters, everything is not mine.**

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**Chapter 14: Another Crazy Encounter?**

The only thing I saw when I realized my surrounding was destruction. Debris of what used to be glorious buildings were scattered around the place. Streets that used to be paved beautifully were now covered with ashes and broken by the crumbled stones and bricks. Street lights that used to be shining brightly were now burnt black and toppled to the ground. Windows were shattered, smokes were snaking up to the sky, and ashes were covering the surrounding air. There was only silence in that place.

I was stunned. _What is this place? What happened here?_ My mind swirled, trying to comprehend the situation but no explanation would come up. I looked around, searching for any sign of life but no such luck. It was dead silence. There was no wind blowing, no whispers of the trees, no noises of even the smallest animals, no nothing. There was no single living thing in that place. The town was dead. All that left was the sad remnants of what used to be a glorious town.

I shivered. _What could have happened here?_ My heart clenched in pain. I didn't know why but I felt so sad. I didn't even know what that place was but just by seeing the ruins of it, I felt pain and sorrow shot through my body. And I felt scared too. Tears were forming in the corner of my eyes. _This shouldn't have happened!_ My heart screamed.

"_Yes, it shouldn't have,"_ said a voice from my back. _"And yet it did. And it was my entire fault…"_

I was shocked and turned around. But instead of finding someone behind me, I saw a house. A small modest house made out of wood right on the outskirt of the town. The one and only building left standing.

I watched the house in wary. I didn't see the house before. I didn't even know when I had reached the outskirts of the town. But the voice had come from there and I needed to find out what was happening, so I braved myself up and approached the house slowly. As I reached its front door, I turned the knob carefully. It swung open without a sound. I stepped in.

What greeted me inside was even more surprising than the destroyed town. I saw Rein there, sitting on the floor, next to a somewhat of a makeshift bed, holding the hand of a girl lying on that bed. The girl was someone I'd never seen before and yet she seemed familiar to me. She had a beautiful curly brunette hair with a short-thin face and also a short thin figure. It was unbelievable how thin her whole body was, I was afraid that she might break and shatter in any second. She looked so tired and fragile, and I could see that her hand was trembling inside the hold of Rein's big hands. Even so, despite of all the exhaustion that seemed to be screaming out of every inch of her body, her eyes—a soft shade of brown—were still bearing the shine of that of serenity.

I could only stand there, shocked.

It seemed like neither of them were aware of my arrival as they just continued talking as if I had never been there. I watched in confusion as they were arguing—or at least that was what it looked like to me—because I had just realized that I couldn't hear any of the things that they were talking about. I could see their mouths moving but I couldn't hear any sound coming out of them even though I was standing right in front of them. I frowned at this. _Why can't I hear them?_

I tried to focus my hearing towards them—maybe they were whispering very quietly so I couldn't hear it—but nothing changed. They were still talking but no voice reached me. So I stopped trying to hear and instead focusing on their faces and lips movement in hope that maybe I could catch some clue about what they were talking about.

I watched as Rein shook his head, disagreeing with the laying girl, saying "no" repeatedly and quite visibly trying very hard not to break down then and there. The girl, however, didn't budge either. She smiled with the thin and chapped lips of her, breathing out her every word with as much calmness and confidence as of a queen in her throne. With her trembling hand, she squeezed Rein's hand lightly as if she was trying to calm him down. Rein's body quivered a little.

I didn't know what to make out of the scene playing out in front of me. _Where is this place? What happened to this place? Who is that girl? What is her relationship with Rein? What happened to her and what is it that they are arguing that make Rein seems so devastated? _These questions swirled in my head as I watched Rein raised the girl's hand and softly gave it a kiss. He let his lips lingered there longer while he closed his eyes with somber as if he was refusing to accept what the girl had told him.

I had never seen him like that before, so vulnerable and powerless. Even though he had never been arrogant like Naru, but he had always seemed to possess the same charisma and confidence of a noble. He could sulk, or be sour, or filled with anger, or even be very ridiculous at times, but never once did he seem to be vulnerable. Never once did he seem to be at lost or hopeless. Even when he had just traveled across the country by himself after the death of his parents and joined the orphanage for the first time, even when the orphanage had gone to bankrupt and we had to scratch for money to survive every passing days, even when the debts we had were getting bigger and bigger while it was becoming more and more difficult to support the daily needs of the orphanage, he had never showed any sign of despair or surrender. He would always have this defiant and hopeful look in his eyes, telling everyone that it was going to be alright, and strove for whatever plans that he had in his mind. But here, in front of that girl, holding the girl's hand as if it was his lifeline, he just looked so… broken.

The girl smiled faintly at Rein. Sadness now clearly painted in her eyes but she still didn't seem to be changing her mind about the matter. She opened her mouth to say something, and surprisingly, this time I could hear her voice.

"It's not the end for you yet, Rein," she said with a clear ringing voice, as if she was talking from far away and it was coming from every direction. I also didn't fail to notice that it was the same voice I had heard earlier. "You still have to protect her. She needs you."

Rein looked confused at this but the girl didn't pay him any attention. Instead, slowly but steadily, the girl shifted her eyes to where I was standing. I didn't think that she would be able to see me but she looked directly to my eyes and said, "Save her."

Rein looked behind his shoulder, and our eyes met. My body froze. He was dumbstruck.

"Mai?" he whispered.

And everything became hazy.

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**It's so shoooooort, I know, I'm sorry. But I really like it this way. Well, please let me know what you think of it! R&R!**


	15. Chapter 15:After and Before an Encounter

**Author's note: Aaaah, forgive me for giving you this one lame filler chapter... I just don't know what should I do with this one anymooore... *wailing Aaah... Just... Please just read through it and don't hate me for it... T^T**

**Disclaimer: I think FF should build a system where we only need to put disclaimer in the title of summary of our stories. This is getting annoying.. Well, anyway, Ghost Hunt belongs to whom it's rightfully belong to, which is not me.**

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**Chapter 15: After and Before an Encounter**

"Good morning, Mai-sama! It's time to wake up!"

A very loud joyful voice jolted me out of my sleep. I was immediately greeted by the blinding light of morning sun and I shut my eyes again with a soft groan. I could hear Luthena's footsteps, scuttling around my room to open up the rest of the curtains. I blinked for a couple of times to adjust my eyes with the bright light.

I looked around the room, still feeling a little bit disoriented. Was I sleeping? My mind was trying hard to recall the memories of last night. Oh, yes, right! It's Saturday today! The day of the ball! I remembered going to bed after finishing yet another assignment for the classes, feeling very much jittery because of the ball. I had had trouble sleeping but it seemed like somewhere along the way I was able to fall asleep.

I let out a sigh. "So it was just a dream…," I whispered in relief.

"Did you say something, Mai-sama?" Luthena peered at me from across the room, having just finished open up the last curtains.

"Ah, no… Nothing…" I said as I sat up on the bed, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. But still, isn't that a very strange dream? My mind wandered back to the faint memories of the dream. Even though it was hazy, somehow I could remember some of the details. Like how Rein's body shivered as the girl talked to him, or the ringing voice of the girl, or the shocked face that Rein made when our eyes met… Did he really saw me? I shook my head. Don't be ridiculous! It was just a dream! Still, I got a shiver just from remembering it. Her voice, her words, the destruction of the town; somehow everything about that dream was really bothering me. But why would I dream something like that? I felt wary all of a sudden. It wouldn't have meant anything… right? I sighed again. I hoped that it wasn't some kind of a foreboding sign. This whole ordeal with Naru was already awful enough, if there was anything happened to Rein, I wouldn't know what to do.

"You shouldn't do that, Mai-sama," said Luthena with a smile. Without me realizing, she had moved to the side of my bed, bringing with her some dresses for me to change into. She put the dresses on top of the bed as she continued, "Sighing so early in the morning will make your happiness escape from you."

I smiled bitterly. "Please don't jinx me like that, Luthena, especially in a day like this."

She smiled back at me. "Especially because it's a day like this that I'm trying to keep you away from jinxes, Mai-sama, including sighing. Now," she clapped her hands enthusiastically and beamed at me. "Let's get you ready for the battle today!"

After I got dressed, I had to spend the whole morning reviewing the manners and etiquettes for the ball with Mori-san and Hara-sama. Mori-san was trying to be as helpful as possible but Hara-sama just wouldn't be even a little bit lenient about it. She kept on chiding me about every single thing—"Even the most little single mistake would not do", she said as she hit my back with her fan when she thought I was sitting a bit too slouchy—and made me repeat whatever gesture I was practicing until she felt that it was "at least acceptable". She was so noisy and strict about it I might have confused her for actually being nervous too about the ball. Although that wouldn't be possible as this was her chance to prove that I was not suited for a Duchess candidate. Well, I hadn't complained much since what she was doing was actually helping me improved my etiquettes.

Moving on to lunch, I was still needed to review all of the information about the attending guests—names, positions, current standing in the politics, et cetera—while gulping down my meal because I still had a dancing rehearsal after lunch while the review of etiquettes had taken a whole lot more time than it was planned to due to the endless repetitions and dissatisfaction from Hara-sama. As if remembering pages and pages of boring stuffs wasn't bad enough, I still wasn't able to keep my mind out of the dream last night. Whenever I tried to memorize a line of information, my mind would keep on drifting back to that dream and I would find myself wondering about the girl, what had happened to her, and what had she meant by saving me. Until the snappy voice of Hara-sama brought me back to reality and forced me to recite whatever information that I had abandoned to remember. I was so out of it the whole day, Hara-sama seemed to be ready to explode seeing how unmotivated I was in reviewing the lectures for the ball. I actually felt quite bad about it, what with Hara-sama being more enthusiastic and worked up than me whom this ball meant a lot to. So when she finally blew out her anger to me, I didn't say anything back to her and just apologized sincerely. It seemed to have taken her aback as she didn't say anything afterwards but just glared at me instead.

By the time I entered the room where my dancing rehearsal supposed to be done, I couldn't have been more depressed. The ball will start in just a few hours, I still made a lot of mistakes in my etiquettes, I still haven't memorized half of the guests' information and I just couldn't stop worrying about that dream. Even if I knew that it was just a dream, somehow I couldn't stop this nagging feeling in my stomach. As if it was telling me to be careful, as if it was telling me that there was more than meet the eye about that dream. But should I really trust that dream? After all, isn't that just a dream? But something somewhere inside of me didn't let me end it just like that. The dream, after all, had just been too weird, too real, and too vivid to be just a dream. Maybe it really was a sign? I wondered warily. It couldn't be—

"Mai."

Naru's voice surprised me back to reality. I looked up to see that he was standing a few steps in front of me, frowning slightly. I cocked my head at the sight of him. "What are you doing here, Naru? I thought you are busy making preparation for the ball?"

He looked at me sharply, still with a small frown on his forehead. "I am busy preparing for the ball. To be exact, I am preparing you for the dance."

"Me?" A slight surprise escaped my voice. "You mean the dancing rehearsal? You are practicing with me?"

"I'm not practicing with you. I'm teaching you."

"I thought Gary-san will be the one practicing with me in this rehearsal," I continued, ignoring his correction over my words.

"No. For a rehearsal, you have to do it with your partner or you won't be able to become comfortable in the real ball," he explained. He paused for a second, looking at me as if he wanted to say something else, but instead he raised his hand. "Come," he said. So I pushed myself off the wall and took his hand.

We started to dance across the room. There was no music, only the sound of our footsteps and the rhythm of our breath, but we were moving swiftly nonetheless. We danced without a word, each of us was deep in our own thoughts, moving together yet somehow detached from each other. Outside of Naru's occasional comments or instructions, we were completely engulfed in silence.

"What is it?"

Naru spoke so suddenly I nearly stepped on his foot in surprise. He just lifted me up lightly, tightening his grip on my waist. In the back of my mind, I wondered since when I had grown so comfortable to be this close with Naru.

I looked up to him. "Huh?"

"You're totally unfocused today. What is it?"

I lowered my gaze, feeling embarrassed. "No-nothing… I'm just feeling nervous…"

"If you were feeling nervous, you would be panicking, jittery and you would have stepped on my feet a couple of times already," he said. "But not being calm and silent like this. Did something happen that I don't know of?"

"_Well, something did happen. I saw Rein holding a sick girl's hand in a destroyed town who was saying something about saving me, and I was seeing all of this in my dream. Now, what do you think I should do?"_ There was no way I could say that to him now, could I? I sighed. I couldn't even imagine how Naru would mock me if I ever told him that.

I shook my head. "No, really Naru, there is nothing to worry about. I'm sorry for being so distracted in an important day like this but I just keep on feeling so anxious that I feel tired. That's all. I'm sorry. I will be more focus now."

Naru stared at me as if he was still not pleased with my answer but I couldn't give him any other answer. How could I when even I felt that the actual problem was such an absurd thing to worry about? So we were just standing there, staring at each other, trying to make the other lose their resolution. But no one seemed to budge.

Suddenly Naru pulled away from me. But instead of walking away in dismay, as I had thought he would, he patted the top of my head gently and said, "I have your back. Remember that."

My heart leaped at his words and I could feel blood rushing to my face. I couldn't believe that he was acting so gentle toward me. He usually acted like he couldn't careless, and while he was expecting me to do well, he had never exactly showed me his support. But now, not only he wasn't scolding me for being distracted, he was even actually encouraging me. I didn't know what made this sudden change of attitude, but I couldn't help feeling happy because of it.

I nodded to him, feeling a lot better than before, and offered him a smile. He didn't smile back but he patted my head once more before offering his hand. "Let's do it again from the top."

I took his hand. This time, determination was boiling inside of me. I knew that that dream was still going to bother me and I might not be able to completely push it off of my mind, but I wouldn't waste his trust and support that he gave to me. I would have to get my act together and show those aristocrats that even a mere orphan girl could be an appropriate noble if she put her mind into it. With that thought in mind, I took my position in front of Naru and started to dance.

* * *

I was standing in front of the double door, feeling worse than I had ever felt in my entire life. Behind these doors was the grand ballroom where all kind of aristocrats in town were gathering to attend my debut ball. Naru and Hara-sama had gone earlier to greet the guests and so did Koujo-san and Luthena after they finished preparing me for the ball. Naru had said that I would only make my appearance after the party had gone on halfway, and that was why I was stuck here waiting by myself until the time when I would finally join the ball.

It would have been better if I was already in the ballroom since the beginning of the party as I would be able to ease the nerve bit by bit while the guests were arriving. But no, Naru had to insist on making the guests anticipate for my grand entrance and making me face all of their judging and intimidating stares headlong. Just thinking about it already made me feel like throwing up.

I tried to do a breathing exercise to calm myself down, and I was in the middle of muttering 'Inhale… Exhale…' when the doors were suddenly opened and a thundering voice announced, "Please welcome, the fiancée and Duchess candidate of the Davis family, Lady Mai!"

I was nearly choked by my own spit from the suddenness, but I was able to maintain my composure. I took another deep breath before I hold my head high and stepped into the room.

_This is it_, my heart whispered. _The battle begins._

* * *

**One short meaningless chapter. I know, I'm sorry.. And yeah, as much as I'd like to say that the next one will be thrilling... but no, I can't... Sorry... Oh, please just bear with this flow for a while.. I will be getting there, I promise... T^T**


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